Repair of CFTR folding defects with correctors that function as pharmacological chaperones

The major cause of cystic fibrosis is the presence of processing mutations in CFTR (such as deletion of Phe-508 (F508del-CFTR)) that disrupt folding of the protein and trafficking to the cell surface. Processing mutations appear to inhibit folding of CFTR so that it accumulates in the endoplasmic reticulum as a partially folded protein. Expressing the proteins in the presence of small molecules called correctors can repair CFTR folding defects. Some correctors appear to function as pharmacological chaperones that specifically bind to the CFTR processing mutants and induce them to complete the folding process. In this chapter, we describe techniques to examine the effects of correctors on folding of CFTR processing mutants.