Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Structural mechanisms for VMAT2 inhibition by tetrabenazine

Journal Article · · eLife
DOI:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.91973· OSTI ID:2471655

The vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) is a proton-dependent antiporter responsible for loading monoamine neurotransmitters into synaptic vesicles. Dysregulation of VMAT2 can lead to several neuropsychiatric disorders including Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. Furthermore, drugs such as amphetamine and MDMA are known to act on VMAT2, exemplifying its role in the mechanisms of actions for drugs of abuse. Despite VMAT2’s importance, there remains a critical lack of mechanistic understanding, largely driven by a lack of structural information. Here, we report a 3.1 Å resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of VMAT2 complexed with tetrabenazine (TBZ), a non-competitive inhibitor used in the treatment of Huntington’s chorea. We find TBZ interacts with residues in a central binding site, locking VMAT2 in an occluded conformation and providing a mechanistic basis for non-competitive inhibition. We further identify residues critical for cytosolic and lumenal gating, including a cluster of hydrophobic residues which are involved in a lumenal gating strategy. Our structure also highlights three distinct polar networks that may determine VMAT2 conformational dynamics and play a role in proton transduction. The structure elucidates mechanisms of VMAT2 inhibition and transport, providing insights into VMAT2 architecture, function, and the design of small-molecule therapeutics.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
2471655
Journal Information:
eLife, Journal Name: eLife Vol. 12; ISSN 2050-084X
Publisher:
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd.Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (95)

Vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) protein: A novel and unique marker for cholinergic neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems journal February 1997
Scalable molecular dynamics with NAMD journal January 2005
AutoDock Vina: Improving the speed and accuracy of docking with a new scoring function, efficient optimization, and multithreading journal January 2009
CHARMM-GUI Membrane Builder toward realistic biological membrane simulations journal August 2014
A novel missense variant in SLC18A2 causes recessive brain monoamine vesicular transport disease and absent serotonin in platelets journal March 2019
Using evolutionary data to make sense of macromolecules with a “face‐lifted” ConSurf journal February 2023
Structural and thermodynamic analysis of the GFP:GFP-nanobody complex journal November 2010
Localization of vesicular monoamine transporter isoforms (VMAT1 and VMAT2) to endocrine cells and neurons in rat journal September 1994
The vesicular amine transporter family (SLC18): amine/proton antiporters required for vesicular accumulation and regulated exocytotic secretion of monoamines and acetylcholine journal February 2004
Association of VMAT2 gene polymorphisms with alcohol dependence journal March 2013
Brain dopamine‐serotonin vesicular transport disease presenting as a severe infantile hypotonic parkinsonian disorder journal October 2015
Numerical integration of the cartesian equations of motion of a system with constraints: molecular dynamics of n-alkanes journal March 1977
A cDNA that suppresses MPP+ toxicity encodes a vesicular amine transporter journal August 1992
VMD: Visual molecular dynamics journal February 1996
The chromaffin granule and synaptic vesicle amine transporters differ in substrate recognition and sensitivity to inhibitors. journal March 1994
Uptake of Catecholamines by a Particulate Fraction of the Adrenal Medulla journal July 1962
Structural and functional insights into Spns2-mediated transport of sphingosine-1-phosphate journal June 2023
Tetrabenazine for the Treatment of Hyperkinetic Movement Disorders: A Review of the Literature journal July 2012
Essential site scanning analysis: A new approach for detecting sites that modulate the dispersion of protein global motions journal January 2020
Preparation and evaluation of tetrabenazine enantiomers and all eight stereoisomers of dihydrotetrabenazine as VMAT2 inhibitors journal May 2011
Brain monoamine vesicular transport disease caused by homozygous SLC18A2 variants: A study in 42 affected individuals journal January 2023
The Alternating-Access Mechanism of MFS Transporters Arises from Inverted-Topology Repeats journal April 2011
RELION: Implementation of a Bayesian approach to cryo-EM structure determination journal December 2012
A Fluorescence-Detection Size-Exclusion Chromatography-Based Thermostability Assay for Membrane Protein Precrystallization Screening journal August 2012
The vesiicular monoamine transporter: from chromaffin granule to brain journal March 1998
Vesicular Transport Regulates Monoamine Storage and Release but Is Not Essential for Amphetamine Action journal December 1997
Knockout of the Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2 Gene Results in Neonatal Death and Supersensitivity to Cocaine and Amphetamine journal December 1997
SerialEM: A Program for Automated Tilt Series Acquisition on Tecnai Microscopes Using Prediction of Specimen Position journal July 2003
Structures and General Transport Mechanisms by the Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) journal April 2021
CHARMM-GUI Input Generator for NAMD, GROMACS, AMBER, OpenMM, and CHARMM/OpenMM Simulations Using the CHARMM36 Additive Force Field journal December 2015
Quantitative Assessment of the Energetics of Dopamine Translocation by Human Dopamine Transporter journal December 2017
Identification of Human Vesicle Monoamine Transporter (VMAT2) Lumenal Cysteines That Form an Intramolecular Disulfide Bond journal April 2002
Cyan and Yellow Super Fluorescent Proteins with Improved Brightness, Protein Folding, and FRET Förster Radius , journal May 2006
Automation of the CHARMM General Force Field (CGenFF) II: Assignment of Bonded Parameters and Partial Atomic Charges journal November 2012
PROPKA3: Consistent Treatment of Internal and Surface Residues in Empirical p K a Predictions journal December 2010
Update of the CHARMM All-Atom Additive Force Field for Lipids: Validation on Six Lipid Types journal June 2010
3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine and 5-Hydroxytryptophan as Reserpine Antagonists journal November 1957
A General Theory of Membrane Transport From Studies of Bacteria journal July 1957
Simple Allosteric Model for Membrane Pumps journal August 1966
Crystal structure of a bacterial homologue of Na+/Cl--dependent neurotransmitter transporters journal July 2005
Mechanisms of amphetamine action illuminated through optical monitoring of dopamine synaptic vesicles in Drosophila brain journal February 2016
CHARMM36m: an improved force field for folded and intrinsically disordered proteins journal November 2016
cryoSPARC: algorithms for rapid unsupervised cryo-EM structure determination journal February 2017
Screening and large-scale expression of membrane proteins in mammalian cells for structural studies journal October 2014
Synthetic antibodies against BRIL as universal fiducial marks for single−particle cryoEM structure determination of membrane proteins journal March 2020
Cryo-EM structure of human glucose transporter GLUT4 journal May 2022
Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold journal July 2021
Non-uniform refinement: adaptive regularization improves single-particle cryo-EM reconstruction journal November 2020
DeepEMhancer: a deep learning solution for cryo-EM volume post-processing journal July 2021
Inhibition of VMAT2 by β2-adrenergic agonists, antagonists, and the atypical antipsychotic ziprasidone journal November 2022
Positron Emission Tomography of Monoaminergic Vesicular Binding in Aging and Parkinson Disease journal September 2006
Variations in the Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 1 Gene (VMAT1/SLC18A1) are Associated with Bipolar I Disorder journal August 2006
Identification of a mammalian vesicular polyamine transporter journal October 2014
Brain Dopamine–Serotonin Vesicular Transport Disease and Its Treatment journal February 2013
Exploring the free-energy landscape of a short peptide using an average force journal December 2005
A smooth particle mesh Ewald method journal November 1995
Identification of molecular hinge points mediating alternating access in the vesicular monoamine transporter VMAT2 journal March 2013
Emulating proton-induced conformational changes in the vesicular monoamine transporter VMAT2 by mutagenesis journal November 2016
Structure and function in rhodopsin: High-level expression of rhodopsin with restricted and homogeneous N-glycosylation by a tetracycline-inducible N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I-negative HEK293S stable mammalian cell line journal October 2002
Characterization of the monoamine carrier of chromaffin granule membrane by binding of [2-3H]dihydrotetrabenazine. journal January 1983
Expression cloning of a reserpine-sensitive vesicular monoamine transporter. journal November 1992
Distinct pharmacological properties and distribution in neurons and endocrine cells of two isoforms of the human vesicular monoamine transporter. journal May 1996
VMAT2 knockout mice: Heterozygotes display reduced amphetamine-conditioned reward, enhanced amphetamine locomotion, and enhanced MPTP toxicity journal September 1997
Charged Residues in Transmembrane Domains II and XI of a Vesicular Monoamine Transporter Form a Charge Pair That Promotes High Affinity Substrate Recognition journal February 1997
Mutagenesis and Derivatization of Human Vesicle Monoamine Transporter 2 (VMAT2) Cysteines Identifies Transporter Domains Involved in Tetrabenazine Binding and Substrate Transport journal July 2001
Identification of Conformationally Sensitive Residues Essential for Inhibition of Vesicular Monoamine Transport by the Noncompetitive Inhibitor Tetrabenazine journal November 2013
A Versatile Nanotrap for Biochemical and Functional Studies with Fluorescent Fusion Proteins journal October 2007
A molecular dynamics method for simulations in the canonical ensemble journal June 1984
The ins and outs of vesicular monoamine transporters journal April 2018
ProDy 2.0: increased scale and scope after 10 years of protein dynamics modelling with Python journal April 2021
Large-scale prediction of binding affinity in protein–small ligand complexes: the PRODIGY-LIG web server journal September 2018
A Functional Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 1 (VMAT1) Gene Variant Is Associated with Affect and the Prevalence of Anxiety, Affective, and Alcohol Use Disorders in a Longitudinal Population-Representative Birth Cohort Study journal February 2016
PROMALS3D: a tool for multiple protein sequence and structure alignments journal February 2008
OPM database and PPM web server: resources for positioning of proteins in membranes journal September 2011
Intermediate Phenotype Analysis of Patients, Unaffected Siblings, and Healthy Controls Identifies VMAT2 as a Candidate Gene for Psychotic Disorder and Neurocognition journal April 2012
The vesicular neurotransmitter transporters: current perspectives and future prospects journal December 2000
Canonical dynamics: Equilibrium phase-space distributions journal March 1985
Coot model-building tools for molecular graphics journal November 2004
ISOLDE : a physically realistic environment for model building into low-resolution electron-density maps journal April 2018
Macromolecular structure determination using X-rays, neutrons and electrons: recent developments in Phenix journal October 2019
The vesicular monoamine transporter 2 contains trafficking signals in both its N‐glycosylation and C‐terminal domains journal November 2006
VMAT2: a dynamic regulator of brain monoaminergic neuronal function interacting with drugs of abuse journal January 2011
Illumination of serotonin transporter mechanism and role of the allosteric site journal December 2021
Ion transport and regulation in a synaptic vesicle glutamate transporter journal May 2020
Accumulation of biological amines into chromaffin granules: a model for hormone and neurotransmitter transport journal January 1988
Vesicular neurotransmitter transporters: from bacteria to humans. journal April 1995
Association between Polymorphisms in the Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 1 Gene (VMAT1/SLC18A1) on Chromosome 8p and Schizophrenia journal January 2008
Tetrabenazine: Spotlight on Drug Review journal January 2016
Fpocket: An open source platform for ligand pocket detection journal January 2009
Open Babel: An open chemical toolbox journal October 2011
Thermostabilization of the Human Serotonin Transporter in an Antidepressant-Bound Conformation journal December 2015
Differential expression of two vesicular monoamine transporters journal September 1995
The Gene Polymorphism of VMAT2 Is Associated with Risk of Schizophrenia in Male Han Chinese journal November 2020
Insights into the Modulation of Dopamine Transporter Function by Amphetamine, Orphenadrine, and Cocaine Binding journal June 2015
Automated structure refinement of macromolecular assemblies from cryo-EM maps using Rosetta journal September 2016

Similar Records

Exclusion of close linkage between the synaptic vesicular monoamine transporter locus and schizophrenia spectrum disorders
Journal Article · Sun Dec 17 23:00:00 EST 1995 · American Journal of Medical Genetics · OSTI ID:254412

Structure and mechanism of human vesicular polyamine transporter
Journal Article · Sat May 03 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:2566968

Stereoselective effects of MDMA on inhibition of monoamine uptake
Journal Article · Tue Mar 04 23:00:00 EST 1986 · Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States) · OSTI ID:6942958