Binding of carbonic anhydrase IX to extracellular loop 4 of the NBCe1 Na+/HCO3- cotransporter enhances NBCe1-mediated HCO3- influx in the rat heart

Orlowski A, De Giusti VC, Morgan PE, Aiello EA, Alvarez BV. Binding of carbonic anhydrase IX to extracellular loop 4 of the NBCe1 Na+/HCO3- cotransporter enhances NBCe1-mediated HCO3- influx in the rat heart. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 303: C69-C80, 2012. First published April 25, 2012; doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00431.2011.-Na+/HCO3- cotransporter (NBC)e1 catalyze the electrogenic movement of 1 Na+:2 HCO3- into cardiomyocytes cytosol. NBC proteins associate with carbonic anhydrases (CA), CAII, and CAIV, forming a HCO3- transport metabolon. Herein, we examined the physical/functional interaction of NBCe1 and transmembrane CAIX in cardiac muscle. NBCe1 and CAIX physical association was examined by coimmunoprecipitation, using rat ventricular lysates. NBCe1 coimmunoprecipitated with anti-CAIX antibody, indicating NBCe1 and CAIX interaction in the myocardium. Glutathione-S-transferase (GST) pull-down assays with predicted extracellular loops (EC) of NBCe1 revealed that NBCe1-EC4 mediated interaction with CAIX. Functional NBCe1/CAIX interaction was examined using fluorescence measurements of BCECF in rat cardiomyocytes to monitor cytosolic pH. NBCe1 transport activity was evaluated after membrane depolarization with high extracellular K+ in the presence or absence of the CA inhibitors, benzolamide (BZ; 100 mu M) or 6-ethoxyzolamide (ETZ; 100 mu M) (*P < 0.05). This depolarization protocol produced an intracellular pH (pH(i)) increase of 0.17 +/- 0.01 (n = 11), which was inhibited by BZ (0.11 +/- 0.02; n = 7) or ETZ (0.06 +/- 0.01; n = 6). NBCe1 activity was also measured by changes of pH(i) in NBCe1-transfected human embryonic kidney 293 cells subjected to acid loads. Cotransfection of CAIX with NBCe1 increased the rate of pH(i) recovery (in mM/min) by about fourfold (12.1 +/- 0.8; n = 9) compared with cells expressing NBCe1 alone (3.1 +/- 0.5; n = 7), which was inhibited by BZ (7.5 +/- 0.3; n = 9). We demonstrated that CAIX forms a complex with EC4 of NBCe1, which activates NBCe1-mediated HCO3- influx in the myocardium. CAIX and NBCe1 have been linked to tumorigenesis and cardiac cell growth, respectively. Thus inhibition of CA activity might be useful to prevent activation of NBCe1 under these pathological conditions.