Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 11, Issue 3, 2011

Protein-protein interactions are involved in the vast majority of biological processes that occur in living organisms from embryogenesis, cell-cell communication, receptor-ligand interactions, signal transduction pathways, gene transcription, metabolism, homeostasis and proliferation. Despite the potential importance of protein-protein interactions, researchers believed that finding small-molecule drugs to modulate PPIs would Read More

Protein-protein interactions are involved in most of the essential processes that occur in living organisms from cell motility to DNA replication, which makes them interesting targets for drug discovery. However, due to the lack of deep pockets, and the large contact surfaces involved in these interactions, they are considered challenging targets and have been often times dismissed as “undruggable”. Nonetheless, significant ef Read More

Between 40,000 and 200,000 protein-protein interactions have been predicted to exist within the human interactome. As these interactions are of a critical nature in many important cellular functions and their dysregulation is causal of disease, the modulation of these binding events has emerged as a leading, yet difficult therapeutic arena. In particular, the targeting of protein-protein interactions relevant to cancer is of f Read More

PUMA (p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis) is a Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3)-only Bcl-2 family member and a key mediator of apoptosis induced by a wide variety of stimuli. PUMA is particularly important in initiating radiation induced apoptosis and damage in the gastrointestinal and hematopoietic systems. Unlike most BH3-only proteins, PUMA neutralizes all five known antiapoptotic Bcl-2 members through high affinit Read More

Apoptosis is an essential process for embryonic and lymphocyte development, immune system modulation and tissue homeostasis. Defects in apoptotic signaling often lead to diseases of immune deficiency, neurodegeneration and cancer [1,2]. In the cancer arena, these defects may contribute to the establishment and growth of tumors. Moreover, many cytotoxic chemotherapies act in part by activating these apopto Read More

The recognition that malfunction of the microtubule (MT) associated protein tau is likely to play a defining role in the onset and/or progression of a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, has resulted in the initiation of drug discovery programs that target this protein. Tau is an endogenous MT-stabilizing agent that is highly expressed in the axons of neurons. The MT-stabilizing function of tau is Read More