Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 10, Issue 6, 2003

Hydroxyurea is used to treat a variety of cancers and sickle cell disease. Despite this widespread use, a complete mechanistic understanding of the beneficial actions of this compound remains to be understood. Hydroxyurea inhibits ribonucleotide reductase and increases the levels of fetal hemoglobin, which explains a portion of the effects of this drug. Administration of hydroxyurea to patients results in a significant increas Read More

The 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (17β-HSDs) play an important role in the regulation of steroid hormones, such as estrogens and androgens, by catalysing the reduction of 17-ketosteroids or the oxidation of 17β-hydroxysteroids using NAD(P)H or NAD(P)+ as cofactor. The enzyme activities associated with the different 17β-HSD isoforms are widespread in human tissues, not only in classic steroidogenic tissu Read More

In cells, protein degradation is a key pathway for the destruction of abnormal or damaged proteins as well as for the elimination of proteins whose presence is no longer required. Among the various cell proteases, the proteasome, a multicatalytic macromolecular complex, is specifically required for the degradation of ubiquitinated proteins. In normal cells, the proteasome ensures the elimination of numerous proteins th Read More

The β-propeller fold appears as a very fascinating architecture based on four-stranded antiparallel and twisted β-sheets, radially arranged around a central tunnel. Similar to the α / β-barrel (TIM-barrel) fold, the β-propeller has a wide range of different functions, and is gaining substantial attention. Some proteins containing β-propeller domains have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases such as canc Read More