Expression, purification and stabilization of human serotonin transporter from E. coli

The serotonin transporter belongs to the family of sodium-chloride coupled neurotransmitter transporter and is related to depression in humans. It is therefore an important drug target to support treatment of depression. Recently, structures of human serotonin transporter in complex with inhibitor molecules have been published. However, the production of large protein amounts for crystallization experiments remains a bottleneck. Here we present the possibility to obtain purified serotonin transporter from E. coli. Fos-choline 12 solubilized target protein was obtained with a purity of >95% and a yield of 1.2 mg L^-1 culture in autoinduction medium. CD spectroscopic analysis of protein stability allowed identifying CHS and POPX as stabilizing components, which increased hSERT thermostability by 7 °C. The kinetic dissociation constant K_D of 2.8 μM (±0.05) for of the inhibitor Desipramine was determined with a ka of 10,848 M - 1 s-1 (±220) and a kd of 0.03 s-1 (±4.7 × 10-5).