Kevin Hollister

The orphan nuclear receptor SXR coordinately regulates drug clearance in response to a wide variety of xenobiotic compounds. This signaling system protects the body from exposure to toxic compounds; however, it can also pose a severe barrier to drug therapy. We now demonstrate that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease inhibitor ritonavir binds SXR and activates its target genes. This represents an example of a commonly used therapeutic agent that effectively activates SXR. We also show that other protease inhibitors are weaker (saquinavir) or unable to activate SXR (nelfinavir, indinavir) thus defining analogs that fail to induce SXR-regulated clearance pathways. Interestingly, HIV protease inhibitors are distinct from previously known SXR ligands in that they are peptide mimetic compounds. This expands the ligand specificity of SXR to include this unique chemical class whose pharmaceutical significance is expanding. Finally, we show that SXR ligands activate expression of multiple resistance protein 2, a critical regulator of bile flow and biliary drug excretion. These findings have important implications for the role of SXR in regulating drug clearance and hepatic disorders associated with impaired bile flow.

Unlike classical nuclear receptors that require ligand for transcriptional activity, the constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) is active in the absence of ligand. To determine the molecular contacts that underlie this constitutive activity, we created a three-dimensional model of CAR and verified critical structural features by mutational analysis. We found that the same motifs that facilitate ligand-dependent activity in classical receptors also mediated constitutive activity in CAR. This raises a critical question: how are these motifs maintained in an active conformation in unliganded CAR? The model identified several novel interactions that account for this activity. First, CAR possesses a short loop between helix 11 and the transactivation domain (helix 12), as well as a short carboxy-terminal helix. Together, these features favor ligand-independent docking of the transactivation domain in a position that is characteristic of ligand-activated receptors. Second, this active conformation is further stabilized by a charge-charge interaction that anchors the carboxy-terminal activation domain to helix 4. Mutational analysis of these interactions provides direct experimental support for this model. We also show that ligand-mediated repression of constitutive activity reflects both a displacement of coactivator and a recruitment of corepressor. Our data demonstrate that CAR utilizes the same conserved structural motifs and coregulator proteins as originally defined for classical nuclear receptors. Despite these remarkable similarities, our model demonstrates how a few critical changes in CAR can dramatically reverse the transcriptional activity of this protein.

BAR is a nuclear bile acid receptor (BAR) (FXR) receptor that regulates gene networks involved in cholesterol and bile acid homeostasis. We have identified two classes of synthetic compounds that differentially modulate BAR activity. The first class activates BAR target genes in the predicted fashion and is 25-fold more potent than endogenous bile acids. The second class, represented by AGN34, antagonizes BAR in transient reporter assays. Surprisingly, this compound acts in a gene-selective manner in vivo: it is an agonist on CYP7A1, an antagonist on IBABP, and is neutral on SHP. These findings indicate that synthetic BAR modulators can be developed to regulate transcription in a gene-specific fashion. Given the ability of BAR to regulate several lipid homeostatic pathways, the identification of gene-selective BAR modulators have important implications for the development of improved cholesterol lowering agents.

Discussing whether IT architecture should be centralized or decentralized is as old as the technology itself. We propose that, notwithstanding the various perspectives that have been brought to the debate, what is missing thus far is the seesaw between centralization and decentralization. The reasons for this important phenomenon relate not only to IT-centric issues but also to current events pervading other areas of the organization. One key issue is how management has changed its IT focus from a "must have/keeping up with the Joneses" investment to a value-based "where's the beef?" approach pragmatically emphasizing the relevance of data and its uses. A second consideration is the business requirements for a reliable, available, fault-tolerant, backed-up, secure IT environment, even in the face of catastrophic events, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Executives cannot afford to not know why the renewed focus on IT architecture centralization has happened and how it might affect their organizations.