Pharmacological inhibition of ENT1 enhances the impact of specific dietary fats on energy metabolism gene expression.

Medium chain fatty acids are commonly consumed as part of diets for endurance sports and as medical treatment in ketogenic diets where these diets regulate energy metabolism and increase adenosine levels. However, the role of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1), which is responsible for adenosine transport across membranes in this process, is not well understood. Here, we investigate ENT1 activity in controlling the effects of two dietary medium chain fatty acids (decanoic and octanoic acid), employing the tractable model system We show that genetic ablation of three ENT1 orthologues unexpectedly improves cell proliferation specifically following decanoic acid treatment.