Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 9, 2026

¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution

¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution

Killing time for cancer cells

Shoshana Klein¹, Frank McCormick, Alexander Levitzki

¹Unit of Cellular Signalling, Department of Biological Chemistry, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.

Nature Reviews. Cancer

|June 21, 2005

Abstract:

As the signalling pathways that control cellular proliferation and death are unravelled, a range of targets have emerged as candidates for molecular cancer therapy. For their survival, cancer cells depend on a few highly activated signalling pathways; inhibition of these pathways has a strong apoptotic effect and can lead to tumour regression. But drugs that exploit this weakness, such as imatinib, have not cured patients: withdrawal of the drug leads to disease recurrence, and sustained treatment leads to the emergence of drug-resistant clones. Can cancer be cured, or will it have to be controlled as a chronic disease?

Insights

Targeting cancer cell signaling pathways can induce tumor regression but does not cure cancer. Drug resistance and recurrence highlight the need for new therapeutic strategies for managing cancer as a chronic disease.

Area of Science:

Molecular biology
Cancer research
Pharmacology

Read full analysis

More Related Videos

¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Variable-Temperature NMR

¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Variable-Temperature NMR

Factors Affecting Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Factors Affecting Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Related Concept Videos

¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution

¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution

At room temperature, the chair conformer of cyclohexane undergoes rapid ring flipping between two equivalent chair conformers at a rate of approximately 105 times per second. These two chair conformers are in equilibrium. The rapid ring flipping results in the interconversion of the axial proton to an equatorial proton and an equatorial to the axial proton. Such interconversions are too rapid and cannot be detected on the NMR timescale. Hence, the NMR spectrometer cannot distinguish between the...

¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Variable-Temperature NMR

¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Variable-Temperature NMR

The axial and equatorial protons in cyclohexane can be distinguished by performing a variable-temperature NMR experiment. In this process, except for one proton, the remaining eleven protons are replaced by deuterium. The deuterium substitution avoids the possible peak splitting caused by the spin-spin coupling between the adjacent protons. The remaining proton flips between the axial and equatorial positions.

Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins are a group of proteins that do not fold into specific three-dimensional structures. Their structural flexibility allows them to complement ordered proteins to perform functions that are inaccessible to rigid structures. They are more common in eukaryotes than prokaryotes and may either be exclusively intrinsically disordered or hybrid proteins, consisting of a mix of ordered and disordered regions. The absence of a rigid structure in these proteins can be...

Globular and Fibrous Proteins

Globular and Fibrous Proteins

Many proteins can be classified into two distinct subtypes - globular or fibrous. These two types differ in their shapes and solubilities.
Globular proteins are also known as spheroproteins and typically are approximately round in shape. They contain a mix of amino acid types and contain differing sequences in their primary structures. Globular proteins have many different functions, such as enzymes, cellular messengers, and molecular transporters. These roles often require the proteins to be...

Carbon Skeletons

Carbon Skeletons

Life on Earth is carbon-based, as all macromolecules that make up living organisms contain carbon atoms. All organic compounds have a carbon backbone. Each carbon atom is tetravalent and can bond with four other atoms, making it an extraordinarily flexible component of biological molecules. Because carbon’s valence electrons are stable, it rarely becomes an ion. As the carbon chain increases in length, structural modifications such as ring structures, double bonds, and branching side...

The Extracellular Matrix

The Extracellular Matrix

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Targeting Oncogenic KRAS Using Peptide Nucleic Acid Oligomers Attached to Cell-Penetrating Peptides.

International journal of molecular sciences·2026

Oncogenic KRAS Rewires mRNA Stability and Translation through AGO2-Mediated Disruption of the miRNA pathway.

Cancer research·2026

Erk inhibitors intercept Erk-mediated negative feedback while imposing cell-cycle arrest and activating p38.

iScience·2026

NF1 and SPRED1/2 cooperate through RAS-MAPK-independent functions.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Dual inhibition of GTP-bound (ON) and GDP-bound (OFF) KRASG12C suppresses PI3Kα and leads to potent tumor inhibition.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

EGFR-targeted affibody-polyIC polyplex kills EGFR-overexpressing cancer cells without activating the EGFR.

PloS one·2026

See all related articles