Comparison of effects of green tea catechins on apicomplexan hexose transporters and mammalian orthologues

Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2009 Jul 2. [Epub ahead of print]

Comparison of effects of green tea catechins on apicomplexan hexose transporters and mammalian orthologues

Slavic K, Derbyshire ET, Naftalin RJ, Krishna S, Staines HM.

Centre for Infection, Division of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, St. George's, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, UK.

Here we have investigated the inhibitory properties of green tea catechins on the Plasmodium falciparum hexose transporter (PfHT), the Babesia bovis hexose transporter 1 (BboHT1) and the mammalian facilitative glucose transporters, GLUT1 and GLUT5, expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. (-)-Epicatechin-gallate (ECG) and (-)-epigallocatechin-gallate (EGCG) inhibited D-glucose transport by GLUT1 and PfHT, and D-fructose transport by GLUT5, with apparent K(i) values between 45 and 117muM. BboHT1 was more potently inhibited by the ungallated catechins (-)-epicatechin (EC) and (-)-epigallocatechin (EGC), with apparent K(i) values of 108 and 168muM, respectively. Site-directed mutagenesis experiments provided little further support for previously reported models of catechin binding to hexose transporters. Furthermore, P. falciparum growth inhibition by catechins was not affected by the external D-glucose concentration. Our results provide new data on the inhibitory action of catechins against sugar transporters but were unable to elucidate the antimalarial mechanism of action of these agents.

PMID: 19577593 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]