Human ABC transporter ABCC11: Looking back pioneers’ Odyssey and creating a new path toward clinical application

Abstract

In 1969 pioneering work was made by Srivastava and Beutler (J Biol Chem 244:9-16, 1969) who reported that elimination of GSSG from human erythrocytes to the incubation medium is a unidirectional and energy-dependent process. Since then, a large number of biochemical/physiological studies were performed to characterize that energy-dependent unidirectional transporter. In 1992 Cole et al. made a giant leap in identifying molecular nature of that transporter to name MRP1 (ABCC1 according to the international nomenclature). Thereafter, completion of the Human Genome Project and advanced bioinformatics technology enabled researchers to gain more insight into the gene structure of a total of 48 ABC transporters in the human genome. Today, rapid growth of personalized medicine is being supported by emerging new technologies together with accumulating knowledge of pharmacogenomics. In this chapter, we show technological developments hitherto we made and will introduce a new SNP-typing method for human ABCC11 gene that is expected to provide a practical tool for clinical diagnosis of axillary osmidrosis.