Cited by 232Cellular transport and secretionCholesterol and Lipid MetabolismLipoproteins and Cardiovascular Health

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 32 of the 32 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 11 of the 31 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

ARH Is a Modular Adaptor Protein That Interacts with the LDL Receptor, Clathrin, and AP-2

Open access

Abstract

Mutations in the phosphotyrosine binding domain protein ARH cause autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia, a disorder caused by defective internalization of low density lipoprotein receptors (LDLR) in the liver. To examine the function of ARH, we used pull-down experiments to test for interactions between ARH, the LDLR, and proteins involved in clathrin-mediated endocytosis. The phosphotyrosine binding domain of ARH interacted with the internalization sequence (NPVY) in the cytoplasmic tail of LDLR in a sequence-specific manner. Mutations in the NPVY sequence that were previously shown to decrease LDLR internalization abolished in vitro binding to ARH. Recombinant ARH bound purified bovine clathrin with high affinity (K(D), approximately 44 nm). The interaction between ARH and clathrin was mapped to a canonical clathrin box sequence (LLDLE) in ARH and to the N-terminal domain of the clathrin heavy chain. A highly conserved 20-amino acid sequence in the C-terminal region of ARH bound the beta(2)-adaptin subunit of AP-2. Mutation of a glutamic acid residue in the appendage domain of beta(2)-adaptin that is required for interaction with the adapter protein beta-arrestin markedly reduced binding to ARH. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that ARH functions as an adaptor protein that couples LDLR to the endocytic machinery.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

ARH, the protein mutated in autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia, binds the LDL receptor cytoplasmic tail, clathrin, and the β2-adaptin subunit of AP-2 through distinct conserved motifs, supporting its proposed role as a modular adaptor that couples LDLR to the endocytic machinery. All interactions were demonstrated in vitro with recombinant proteins.

Key findings

  • The ARH PTB domain binds the LDLR cytoplasmic tail in a sequence-specific manner: full-length ARH and ARH(1–219) bound the tail, whereas ARH(188–308) lacking the PTB domain did not. Mutating LDLR Tyr-807 to cysteine or alanine (substitutions previously shown to abolish LDLR internalization) markedly reduced binding, while Y807F had no effect, indicating an aromatic residue at position 807 is required and phosphorylation is not.
  • Mutation of ARH Phe-165 to valine or alanine abolished binding to the LDLR tail, consistent with a model based on the X11 PTB domain structure.
  • Recombinant ARH bound purified bovine clathrin with high affinity (K_D ∼44 nM). Binding mapped to the clathrin box motif LLDLE (residues 212–216) and to the N-terminal domain of the clathrin heavy chain (residues 1–494); replacing the first two leucines or the two acidic residues with alanines abolished binding.
  • ARH bound the β2-adaptin appendage domain (residues 664–937) but not the N-terminal 587 residues. β2-adaptin E849A abolished binding, E902A reduced but did not abolish it; on ARH, residues 260–279 were required, and R266A completely abolished binding while R261 mutation had little effect.
  • ARH sequences are conserved across species: mouse, frog, and zebrafish ARH share 89%, 72%, and 61% identity with human ARH, respectively, with 54% of amino acids identical in all four; four conserved regions were identified (N-terminal 44 aa, PTB domain residues 45–175, clathrin box 212–216, and residues 249–276).

Methods

  • In vitro pull-down assays: recombinant His-tagged full-length and truncated/mutated ARH proteins (expressed in *E. coli* BL21(DE3), purified on Ni-NTA) incubated with GST fusion proteins (LDLR cytoplasmic tail, clathrin N-terminal domain 1–494, β2-adaptin fragments and mutants), followed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting with anti-His6, anti-GST, anti-clathrin, or anti-LDLR antibodies.
  • Clathrin binding assays: His6·ARH immobilized on Ni-NTA beads incubated with 125I-Bolton-Hunter-labeled clathrin purified from bovine brain; bound/free separation through a sucrose cushion; assays in triplicate with nonspecific binding subtracted; Scatchard analysis for affinity.
  • Phylogenetic analysis: mouse, frog (*Xenopus laevis*), and zebrafish ARH orthologs cloned by RT-PCR from liver, oocyte, and embryo mRNA using EST sequences; alignment with ClustalW. Site-directed mutagenesis via QuikChange; all constructs verified by DNA sequencing.

Limitations

  • Stated by the authors: because binding studies used recombinant proteins in vitro, they do not constitute direct evidence that ARH interacts with LDLR, clathrin, and β2-adaptin in vivo, nor that these interactions are required for ARH function; further studies are needed to confirm this.
  • Stated by the authors: elucidation of ARH's specific role has been hampered by the lack of an ARH-deficient cell line with significantly impaired LDLR function, and LDL uptake in ARH-patient fibroblasts is normal or only moderately impaired; it is not known why ARH is required in hepatocytes but not fibroblasts.
  • Evident from the text: the PTB–LDLR interaction model is based on homology modeling to the X11 crystal structure rather than a structure of ARH itself, and the proposed correspondence of ARH Arg-266 to arrestin arginines interacting with β2-adaptin Glu-849 is presented as a possibility ("may interact") rather than demonstrated.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1074/jbc.m208539200

Cites

32 of 32 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

11 of 31 cited sources checked · 5 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 50 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 19
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 8
25 of 25
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The identities of the proteins that bind the FDNPVY sequence in the LDLR tail are not known.

    “The identities of the proteins that bind the FDNPVY sequence in the LDLR tail are not known.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    It is not known whether the interaction between FDNPVY-containing peptides and the clathrin terminal domain is sufficient to mediate internalization of the LDLR.

    “but it is not known if this interaction is sufficient to mediate internalization of the receptor.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The in vitro interactions of recombinant ARH with LDLR, clathrin, and AP-2 reflect the interactions that mediate LDLR endocytosis in vivo.

    “These data are consistent with the hypothesis that ARH functions as an adaptor protein that couples LDLR to the endocytic machinery.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The ARH PTB domain adopts a fold sufficiently similar to the X11 PTB domain that the X11 crystal structure can be used to model how the ARH PTB domain binds the FDNPVY sequence.

    “Modeling of the ARH PTB domain based on the X11 crystal structure suggests that the FDNPVY sequence of the LDLR cytoplasmic tail interacts as an extension of the β-sheet of the ARH PTB domain.”
4 of 4

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • β2-adaptin fragment has conflicting endpoint

    Minor

    The methods list a β2-adaptin construct spanning residues 1-538, but the results describe the tested N-terminal fragment as containing 587 residues.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 31 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–200 of 232

Metadata

Authors
He, G., Gupta, S., Yi, M., Michaely, P., Hobbs, H. H., & Cohen, J. C.
Affiliations
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Cohen, Jonathan C.
Venue
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2002-11
Volume
277
Issue
46
Pages
44044-44049
ISSN
0021-9258 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2020331445
Cited by
232
References
31
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 11
FWCI
4.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Biological Chemistry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL053917, P01HL020948)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Cellular transport and secretion
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Cholesterol and Lipid Metabolism
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Lipoproteins and Cardiovascular Health
Keywords
ArH+, adaptor proteins, LDL receptor, clathrin, AP-2, clathrin-mediated endocytosis, phosphotyrosine binding domain, autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia, beta-arrestin, liver
MeSH terms
Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Binding Sites, Carrier Proteins, Clathrin, Endocytosis, Glutathione Transferase, Humans, Hyperlipoproteinemia Type II, Models, Molecular, Molecular Sequence Data, Mutation, Plasmids, Protein Binding, Receptors, LDL, Recombinant Fusion Proteins, Recombinant Proteins, Xenopus, Zebrafish, Immunoblotting, Protein Structure, Tertiary, Glutamic Acid, Adaptor Proteins, Vesicular Transport, Adaptor Protein Complex 2, Adaptor Protein Complex beta Subunits, Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Mice

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-11-09, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-11-09 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review