This mini-review describes the role of the solute carrier (SLC)15 family of proton-coupled oligopeptide transporters (POTs) and particularly Pept2 (Slc15A2) and PhT1 (Slc15A4) in the brain. That family transports endogenous di- and tripeptides and peptidomimetics but also a number of drugs. The review focuses on the pioneering work of David E. Smith in the field in identifying the impact of PepT2 at the choroid plexus (the blood-CSF barrier) as well as PepT2 and PhT1 in brain parenchymal cells. It also discusses recent findings and future directions in relation to brain POTs including cellular and subcellular localization, regulatory pathways, transporter structure, species differences and disease states.
Keywords: CSF; Choroid plexus; PepT2 (Slc15A2); PhT1 (Slc15A4); PhT2 (Slc15A3); SLC15; knockout mice; proton-coupled oligopeptide transporters.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.