It acts a symporter, moving sodium ions and other organic cations across the membrane along with carnitine.

[6] The SLC22A5 gene, containing 10 exons,[7] is located on the q arm of chromosome 5 in position 31.1 and spans 25,910 base pair.

Organic cations transported by this protein include tetraethylammonium (TEA) without involvement of sodium.

[6] Patients often display metabolic decompensation, hypoketotic hypoglycemia, hepatic encephalopathy, Reye syndrome, and sudden infant death in their first year, followed by the later onset of cardiomyopathy or skeletal myopathy, arrhythmias, muscle weakness, and heart failure in early childhood.

[11] This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.