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A Kinetic Fluorescence-based Ca2+ Mobilization Assay to Identify G Protein-coupled Receptor Agonists, Antagonists, and Allosteric Modulators
Published on: February 20, 2018
Cytokine receptor dimerization and activation: prospects for small molecule agonists
1Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. boger@scripps.edu
Ligand-induced receptor dimerization initiates cell signaling. Structural insights into erythropoietin receptor activation guide the search for small-molecule cytokine mimetics.
Area of Science:
- Cellular biology
- Biochemistry
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Ligand-induced dimerization is a key mechanism for cell surface receptor activation and signal transduction.
- Many therapeutically relevant receptor families are activated through this dimerization process.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the mechanism of receptor activation, focusing on structural insights from the erythropoietin receptor.
- To discuss the potential for discovering small-molecule mimetics of receptor agonists.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of recently available structural information, particularly for the erythropoietin receptor.
- Review of strategies for identifying peptide and non-peptide cytokine mimetics.
Main Results:
- Structural data provides insights into the mechanism of receptor activation and constraints on receptor-agonist complexes.
- Identification of several peptide and non-peptide cytokine mimetics has been achieved.
Conclusions:
- Understanding receptor dimerization mechanisms is crucial for drug discovery.
- Small-molecule mimetics offer therapeutic potential for modulating receptor activity.
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