Frances and Don W. Powell, MD, Lecture: Intestinal Transporters and Transcription Factors as Drug Targets for Gut Disorders

SOCIETY: AGA Solute carrier (SLC) transporters play critical roles in mediating transport of ions, nutrients, neurotransmitters, drugs, across biological membranes. Substantial evidence now indicate that these transporters have other non-canonical functions beyond the classical function of transport such as regulating barrier function, gut microbiome or metabolites and maintaining epithelial homeostasis. Several classes of SLC drug transporters (neurotransmitters, SGLT1) are established drug targets and many other SLC transporters are being explored in clinical trials. Given that these transporters are largely dysregulated in inflammatory disorders, this symposium will highlight recent advances in transporter function, expression and regulation in the context of health and diseases with an objective to unveil mechanisms for modulating their function or expression that can help in developing innovative strategies for drug targets. Since several transcriptional factors (TFs) have revolutionized the treatment of IBD and other inflammatory disorders, we will also discuss the essential novel role of the TF?s in influencing critical gut epithelial functions such as transport and barrier function.