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Updated: Jul 24, 2025

Author Spotlight: Exploring Cellular Processes by Modeling Ligands in Cryo-EM Maps
Published on: July 19, 2024
Cryo-EM structures of actin binding proteins as tool for drug discovery
Christian Dahlstroem1, Themistoklis Paraschiakos1, Han Sun2
1Department of Biochemistry and Signal Transduction, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, D-20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Cellular actin dynamic is controlled by a plethora of actin binding proteins (ABPs), including actin nucleating, bundling, cross-linking, capping, and severing proteins. In this review, regulation of actin dynamics by ABPs will be introduced, and the role of the F-actin severing protein cofilin-1 and the F-actin bundling protein L-plastin in actin dynamics discussed in more detail. Since up-regulation of these proteins in different kinds of cancers is associated with malignant progression of cancer cells, we suggest the cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) structure of F- actin with the respective ABP as template for in silico drug design to specifically disrupt the interaction of these ABPs with F-actin.
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