Nicotinamide is an endogenous agonist for a C. elegans TRPV OSM-9 and OCR-4 channel.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27731314.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms13135 and PMC identifier 5064019.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
TRPV ion channels are directly activated by sensory stimuli and participate in thermo-, mechano- and chemo-sensation. They are also hypothesized to respond to endogenous agonists that would modulate sensory responses. Here, we show that the nicotinamide (NAM) form of vitamin B<sub>3</sub> is an agonist of a Caenorhabditis elegans TRPV channel. Using heterologous expression in Xenopus oocytes, we demonstrate that NAM is a soluble agonist for a channel consisting of the well-studied OSM-9 TRPV subunit and relatively uncharacterized OCR-4 TRPV subunit as well as the orthologous Drosophila Nan-Iav TRPV channel, and we examine stoichiometry of subunit assembly. Finally, we show that behaviours mediated by these C. elegans and Drosophila channels are responsive to NAM, suggesting conservation of activity of this soluble endogenous metabolite on TRPV activity. Our results in combination with the role of NAM in NAD+ metabolism suggest an intriguing link between metabolic regulation and TRPV channel activity.
Medical subject headings
- Caenorhabditis elegans
- Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
- Nerve Tissue Proteins
- Niacinamide
- Protein Subunits
- TRPV Cation Channels