Abstract
Nucleoside transporters are a group of poorly understood membrane proteins involved in the movement of nucleoside and many nucleoside analogs across cell membranes. Nucleoside analog drugs are used routinely in various types of chemotherapy. These drugs have been widely used for many years with good results. However, variability in patient response and both de novo and acquired resistance continue to be major obstacles in effective chemotherapy. In combination with the development of new nucleoside analog drugs, a concerted effort is underway to improve our understanding of the genomics and proteomics of nucleoside transporters in order to identify the factors that influence individual patient responses. Here, we describe recent important contributions to our understanding of the genomics and proteomics of this group of proteins with reference to drug bioavailability. In addition, we discuss future approaches, which will provide further insights into nucleoside transporters structure and function.
Keywords: ENT genes, Promoter Analyses, transcriptional regulators, amino-terminal motifs, nucleoside transport protein