Transporters on Biomembrane: Current Progress and Future Prospects

Transporters are responsible for the selective permeability of organic and inorganic solutes through the bio-membrane and contribute to determine the distribution of compounds in the body in concert with metabolic/synthetic enzymes. The drugs affecting transporters are, thus, expected to alter the distribution of compounds in the body and to restore homeostasis in the disease conditions. Additionally, transporters contribute to pharmacokinetics by mediating permeation of drugs and their metabolites. Molecular biological approaches revealed molecular nature of transporters and greatly advanced the research field. Now the directions of the transporter researches have been shifted to the understanding of structural bases of the transport functions, to the revealing of functional units of membrane transport and to the understanding of in vivo function of transporter molecules. The knowledge of the functional units of membrane transport is essential to link the function of transporter molecules revealed by molecular cloning to the physiological functions of cells and homeostasis. The idea of “transportsome” would contribute to it