IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v581y2020i7808d10.1038_s41586-020-2295-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Structure of nevanimibe-bound tetrameric human ACAT1

Author

Listed:
  • Tao Long

    (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Yingyuan Sun

    (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Abdirahman Hassan

    (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Xiaofeng Qi

    (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Xiaochun Li

    (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
    University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)

Abstract

Cholesterol is an essential component of mammalian cell membranes, constituting up to 50% of plasma membrane lipids. By contrast, it accounts for only 5% of lipids in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)1. The ER enzyme sterol O-acyltransferase 1 (also named acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase, ACAT1) transfers a long-chain fatty acid to cholesterol to form cholesteryl esters that coalesce into cytosolic lipid droplets. Under conditions of cholesterol overload, ACAT1 maintains the low cholesterol concentration of the ER and thereby has an essential role in cholesterol homeostasis2,3. ACAT1 has also been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease4, atherosclerosis5 and cancers6. Here we report a cryo-electron microscopy structure of human ACAT1 in complex with nevanimibe7, an inhibitor that is in clinical trials for the treatment of congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The ACAT1 holoenzyme is a tetramer that consists of two homodimers. Each monomer contains nine transmembrane helices (TMs), six of which (TM4–TM9) form a cavity that accommodates nevanimibe and an endogenous acyl-coenzyme A. This cavity also contains a histidine that has previously been identified as essential for catalytic activity8. Our structural data and biochemical analyses provide a physical model to explain the process of cholesterol esterification, as well as details of the interaction between nevanimibe and ACAT1, which may help to accelerate the development of ACAT1 inhibitors to treat related diseases.

Suggested Citation

  • Tao Long & Yingyuan Sun & Abdirahman Hassan & Xiaofeng Qi & Xiaochun Li, 2020. "Structure of nevanimibe-bound tetrameric human ACAT1," Nature, Nature, vol. 581(7808), pages 339-343, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:581:y:2020:i:7808:d:10.1038_s41586-020-2295-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2295-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2295-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-020-2295-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhi Lin & Jiao Liu & Fei Long & Rui Kang & Guido Kroemer & Daolin Tang & Minghua Yang, 2022. "The lipid flippase SLC47A1 blocks metabolic vulnerability to ferroptosis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Pingfeng Zhang & Zheng Liu, 2024. "Structural insights into the transporting and catalyzing mechanism of DltB in LTA D-alanylation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Kun Wang & Chia-Wei Lee & Xuewu Sui & Siyoung Kim & Shuhui Wang & Aidan B. Higgs & Aaron J. Baublis & Gregory A. Voth & Maofu Liao & Tobias C. Walther & Robert V. Farese, 2023. "The structure of phosphatidylinositol remodeling MBOAT7 reveals its catalytic mechanism and enables inhibitor identification," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Xuewu Sui & Kun Wang & Kangkang Song & Chen Xu & Jiunn Song & Chia-Wei Lee & Maofu Liao & Robert V. Farese & Tobias C. Walther, 2023. "Mechanism of action for small-molecule inhibitors of triacylglycerol synthesis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:581:y:2020:i:7808:d:10.1038_s41586-020-2295-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.