The Peptide Transporters of teleost fish, an emerging model in translational research: functional characterization and comparative study of SLC15A1a (PepT1a) and SLC15A1b (PepT1b) transporters

Translational research is the process that applies knowledge from basic biology to techniques and devices to solve critical medical issues. The aim of basic and translational research is to identify specific cellular and animal models for every single process, physiological or pathological, under study. To find out the adequate animal model, one of the best approaches is to study the orthologues of human genes in different species. The increase in the number of fully sequenced genomes offers important advances in comparative genomics and in translational research. The finding that in zebrafish genome there are orthologues for most human genes is particularly important. In fact, zebrafish are for many aspects an outstanding model organism for high throughput phenotyping and modeling human disease and disorders. The aim of the research work of this thesis is to understand and compare the function of proteins belonging to the SoLute Carrier family 15 member A1 (PepT1) in different fish orthologues. The intestinal transporter PepT1 represents a major route of peptides and drug intake. Besides the important role of PepT1 in the nutrient uptake and sensing, the study of the functional properties of this transporter is of great importance not only for the involvement in pathological states, but also for its double role in therapeutic approaches. Recently, PepT1 has become an attractive target for potential therapeutic models for developing and enhancing drug-delivery systems.