Inhibition of clathrin assembly by high affinity binding of specific inositol polyphosphates to the synapse-specific clathrin assembly protein AP-3.

Bacterially expressed synapse-specific clathrin assembly protein, AP-3 (F1-20/AP180/NP185/pp155), bound with high affinity both inositol hexakisphosphate (InsP6) (Kd = 239 nM) and diphosphoinositol pentakisphosphate (PP-InsP5) (Kd = 22 nM). The specificity of this ligand binding was demonstrated by competitive displacement of bound [3H]InsP6. IC50 values were as follows: PP-InsP5 = 50 nM, InsP6 = 240 nM, inositol-1,2,4,5,6-pentakisphosphate (Ins(1,2,4,5,6)P5) = 2.2 microM, inositol-1,3,4,5,6-pentakisphosphate (Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5) = 5 microM, inositol-1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate (Ins(1,3,4,5)P4) > 10 microM, inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (Ins(1,4,5)P3) > 10 microM. Moreover, 10 microM inositol hexasulfate (InsS6) displaced only 15% of [3H]InsP6. The physiological significance of this binding is the ligand-specific inhibition of clathrin assembly (PP-InsP5 > InsP6 > Ins(1,2,4,5,6)P5); Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5 and InsS6 did not inhibit clathrin assembly. We also observed high affinity binding of InsP6 to purified bovine brain AP-3. We separately expressed the 33-kDa amino terminus and the 58-kDa carboxyl terminus, and it was the former that contained the high affinity inositol polyphosphate binding site. These studies suggest that specific inositol polyphosphates may play a role in the regulation of synaptic function by interacting with the synapse-specific clathrin assembly protein AP-3.