Powering brain power: GLUT1 and the era of structure based human transporter biology

Abstract

Every student of biochemistry quickly appreciates the central role of glycolysis in cellular metabolism. What is not usually addressed in an introductory course is how glucose gets inside a cell in the first place. Specialized integral membrane proteins known as transporters are responsible for glucose uptake; in mammals, glucose is imported by members of the GLUT family of which 14 different varieties have been identified in humans [1]. GLUT transporters are members of the major facilitator superfamily of transporters and catalyze the facilitated uptake of glucose in the thermodynamically favored direction. The most widely distributed version isGLUT1that is responsible for getting glucose into red blood cells and across the blood brain barrier, among many other roles [2].

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