Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Inhibit the Function of Human URAT1, a Renal Urate Re-Absorber
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nutrients Communication Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Inhibit the Function of Human URAT1, a Renal Urate Re-absorber 1,2, 2, 2, , 1 1 Hiroki Saito y, Yu Toyoda y , Tappei Takada * y , Hiroshi Hirata , Ami Ota-Kontani , Hiroshi Miyata 2, Naoyuki Kobayashi 1, Youichi Tsuchiya 1 and Hiroshi Suzuki 2 1 Frontier Laboratories for Value Creation, Sapporo Holdings Ltd., 10 Okatome, Yaizu, Shizuoka 425-0013, Japan; [email protected] (H.S.); [email protected] (H.H.); [email protected] (A.O.-K.); [email protected] (N.K.); [email protected] (Y.T.) 2 Department of Pharmacy, The University of Tokyo Hospital, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan; [email protected] (Y.T.); [email protected] (H.M.); [email protected] (H.S.) * Correspondence: [email protected] These authors contributed equally to this work. y Received: 2 May 2020; Accepted: 27 May 2020; Published: 29 May 2020 Abstract: The beneficial effects of fatty acids (FAs) on human health have attracted widespread interest. However, little is known about the impact of FAs on the handling of urate, the end-product of human purine metabolism, in the body. Increased serum urate levels occur in hyperuricemia, a disease that can lead to gout. In humans, urate filtered by the glomerulus of the kidney is majorly re-absorbed from primary urine into the blood via the urate transporter 1 (URAT1)-mediated pathway. URAT1 inhibition, thus, contributes to decreasing serum urate concentration by increasing net renal urate excretion. Here, we investigated the URAT1-inhibitory effects of 25 FAs that are commonly contained in foods or produced in the body. For this purpose, we conducted an in vitro transport assay using cells transiently expressing URAT1. Our results showed that unsaturated FAs, especially long-chain unsaturated FAs, inhibited URAT1 more strongly than saturated FAs. Among the tested unsaturated FAs, eicosapentaenoic acid, α-linolenic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid exhibited substantial URAT1-inhibitory activities, with half maximal inhibitory concentration values of 6.0, 14.2, and 15.2 µM, respectively. Although further studies are required to investigate whether the !-3 polyunsaturated FAs can be employed as uricosuric agents, our findings further confirm FAs as nutritionally important substances influencing human health. Keywords: Docosahexaenoic acid; eicosapentaenoic acid; functional food; gout; human health; hyperuricemia; PUFA; SLC22A12; transporter; uric acid; uricosuric activity 1. Introduction Fatty acids (FAs) are physiologically important as energy sources and membrane constituents; moreover, FAs have diverse biological activities that modulate numerous cell/tissue properties in living organisms [1]. Accumulating evidence suggests that via such actions, dietary FAs can influence human health, well-being, and the risk of disease development. For instance, intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) of the !-3 family, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), has been considered to reduce the risk of chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases; however, other effects of FAs consumption on human health remain controversial and need further investigation [2–5]. In addition to cardiovascular diseases, it is currently acknowledged that FAs influence a range of other diseases, such as metabolic and inflammatory diseases, as well as Nutrients 2020, 12, 1601; doi:10.3390/nu12061601 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients Nutrients 2020, 12, 1601 2 of 12 cancer [1]. However, little is known about the association between FAs and hyperuricemia, a common urate-related disease, especially regarding the effects of FAs on urate-handling machineries in the body. Hyperuricemia, which is characterized by elevated serum uric acid (SUA) levels, is a lifestyle-related disease with high prevalence [6]. As hyperuricemia is a risk factor for gout, a very common form of inflammatory arthritis, SUA management at appropriate levels is becoming increasingly important in daily life [7,8]. Due to the lack of functional uricase (urate-degrading enzyme) in humans [9], uric acid is the end-product of human purine metabolism; urate excretion from the body is, therefore, necessary for the maintenance of uric acid homeostasis. The kidney is responsible for elimination of approximately two-thirds of urate [10]. However, only 3%–10% of the urate filtered by the glomerulus of the kidney is secreted to the urine [11] because most of it is re-absorbed from the primary urine into the blood in the proximal tubule by the urate transporter 1 (URAT1, also known as SLC22A12)-mediated pathway [12]. Thus, inhibition of this urate re-absorption pathway contributes to SUA lowering via the increase of net renal urate excretion. URAT1 is a physiologically important renal urate re-absorber expressed on the brush border membrane of proximal tubular cells. Among the already identified urate re-absorbers expressed on the apical side of the renal cells, URAT1 is most strongly associated with SUA levels in humans [7], as supported by the fact that URAT1 is the causative gene for renal hypouricemia type 1 [12], an inherited disorder characterized by impaired urate re-absorption in the kidney that results in extremely low SUA levels (SUA 2 mg/dL; normal range: 3.0–7.0 mg/dL). With hyperuricemia patients, this transporter is ≤ also the pharmacological target of uricosuric agents, which promote the excretion of urate, such as benzbromarone [12], lesinurad [13], and dotinurad [14]. In this context, daily consumption of nutrients with URAT1-inhibitory activity may have a beneficial effect on SUA management in subjects with high SUA levels. Actually, food ingredients that inhibit URAT1 function have attracted great interest; we and other groups identified some such natural ingredients from fruit flavonoids [15], coumarins [16], and wood pigments [17]. Nevertheless, despite the nutritional significance of FAs, their effects on URAT1 activity remain to be elucidated. In the present study, we examined the URAT1-inhibitory effects of 25 FAs using an in vitro transport assay with mammalian cells transiently expressing URAT1. The cell-based assay revealed that unsaturated FAs inhibited URAT1 more strongly than saturated FAs. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Materials Critical materials and resources used in this study are summarized in Table1. All other chemicals used were commercially available and of analytical grade. The FAs were re-dissolved with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan) after the solvents were gently evaporated with nitrogen gas on the heat block at 50 ◦C. All experiments were conducted with the same lot of each vector plasmid for URAT1 (URAT1 wild-type in pEGFP-C1) or mock (pEGFP-C1), which were derived from our previous study [15]. 2.2. Cell Culture Human embryonic kidney 293-derived 293A cells were maintained in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Biowest, Nuaillé, France), 1% penicillin–streptomycin (Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan), 2 mM L-glutamine (Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan), and 1 non-essential amino acid (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) at × 37 ◦C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% (v/v) CO2 in air. URAT1-expressing or mock plasmids were transfected into 293A cells using polyethylenimine “MAX” (PEI-MAX) (Polysciences, Warrington, PA, USA) as described previously [18], with some modifications. In brief, before transfection, 293A cells were seeded onto 12-well cell culture plates at a concentration of 0.92 105 cells/cm2. Then, 24 h after seeding, each plasmid vector was transiently × Nutrients 2020, 12, 1601 3 of 12 transfected into the cells using PEI-MAX (1 µg of plasmid/5 µL of PEI-MAX/well). The medium was replaced with fresh medium 24 h after transfection. Table 1. Key resources. Reagent or Resource Source Identifier Antibodies Rabbit polyclonal anti-EGFP Life Technologies Cat# A11122; RRID: AB_221569; 1:1,000 dilution 1 Rabbit polyclonal anti-α-tubulin Abcam Cat# ab15246; RRID: AB_301787; 1:1,000 dilution 1 Donkey anti-rabbit IgG-horseradish GE Healthcare Cat# NA934V; RRID: AB_772206; 1:3,000 dilution 1 peroxidase (HRP)-conjugate Chemicals [8-14C]-Uric acid (53 mCi/mmol) American Radiolabeled Chemicals Cat# ARC0513 Arachidonic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 90010; CAS: 506-32-1; Purity: 98% ≥ Benzbromarone FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Cat# 028-1585; CAS: 3562-84-3; Purity: >98% Butyric acid SIGMA-ALDRICH Cat# B103500-5ML; CAS: 107-92-6; Purity: 99% ≥ Decanoic acid FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Cat# 033-01073; CAS: 334-48-5; Purity: 98% ≥ Dimethyl sulfoxide Nacalai Tesque Cat# 13445-74; CAS: 67-68-5 Docosadienoic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 20749; CAS: 17735-98-7; Purity: 98% ≥ Docosahexaenoic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 90310; CAS: 6217-54-5; Purity: 98% ≥ Docosatetraenoic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 90300; CAS: 28874-58-0; Purity: 98% ≥ Dodecanoic acid SIGMA-ALDRICH Cat# L556-25G; CAS: 143-07-7; Purity: 98% ≥ Eicosadienoic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 90330; CAS: 2091-39-6; Purity: 98% ≥ Eicosapentaenoic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 90110; CAS: 10417-94-4; Purity: 98% ≥ Eicosatrienoic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 90192; CAS: 20590-32-3; Purity: 98% ≥ Henicosapentaenoic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 10670; CAS: 24257-10-1; Purity: 95% ≥ Hexanoic acid FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Cat# 081-06292; CAS: 142-62-1; Purity: 99% ≥ Linoleic acid Cayman Chemical Cat# 90150; CAS: 60-33-3; Purity: 98% ≥ Myristic acid FUJIFILM Wako Pure