The neuronal choline transporter CHT1 is regulated by immunosuppressor-sensitive pathways.

The immunosuppressor cyclosporin A inhibits the peptidyl-prolyl-cis/trans-isomerase activity of cyclophilins and the resulting complex inhibits the phosphatase activity of calcineurin. Both enzymes were detected in peripheral nerve endings isolated from the electric organ of Torpedo and shown to be affected by 10 micro m cyclosporin A. Among the cholinergic properties studied, choline uptake was specifically inhibited by cyclosporin A to a maximum of 40%. Cyclosporin A decreased the rate of choline transport but not the binding of the non-transportable choline analogue hemicholinium-3, indicating that the number of membrane transporters was not affected. Through the use of two other immunosuppressors, FK506, which also inhibits calcineurin, and rapamycin, which does not, two different mechanisms of choline uptake inhibition were uncovered. FK506 inhibited the rate of choline transport, whereas rapamycin diminished the affinity for choline. The Torpedo homologue of the high affinity choline transporter CHT1 was cloned and its activity was reconstituted in Xenopus oocytes. Choline uptake by oocytes expressing tCHT1 was inhibited by all three immunosuppressors and also by microinjection of the specific calcineurin autoinhibitory domain A457-481, indicating that the phosphatase calcineurin regulates CHT1 activity and could be the common target of cyclosporin and FK506. Rapamycin, which changed the affinity of the transporter, may have acted through an immunophilin on the isomerization of critical prolines that are found in the tCHT1 sequence.