The therapeutic potential of phosphatase inhibitors

Protein phosphatases (PPs) constitute a large family of enzymes, which are crucial modulators of cellular phosphorylation events. Malfunction in PP activity has been associated with human diseases, including diabetes, obesity, cancer, and neurodegenerative and autoimmune disorders, and makes this class of enzymes attractive targets for chemical biology and medicinal chemistry research. A number of strategies are currently explored for the identification and development of various classes of PP modulators and have resulted in a plethora of chemically distinct inhibitors. Limited selectivity and adverse pharmacological properties of PP inhibitors are still major bottlenecks for further clinical development and resulted in only a few molecular entities currently in clinical trials.