A research about the interactions in the proteins membrane of the Bcl-2 family, relevant in the cell death processes, has opened a new way to the design of antitumor medicines. The work, published on the scientific magazine ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A.’ (PNAS), has taken place in the Universitat de València and the Príncipe Felipe Research Centre of Valencia.
The research has been coordinated by Professor Ismael Mingarro, full university professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (ERI BioTecMed) of the Universitat de València and director of the Membrane Proteins Laboratory of the academic institution, and the doctor Mar Orzáez, main researcher of the Peptide and Protein Chemistry Laboratory of the Principe Felipe Research Centre (CIPF) of Valencia and associate professor of the UV. The work, funded in part by the Prometeo programme by the Valencian Government fro excellent groups, has had the collaboration of doctor Frank Edlich, of the University of Freiburg.
The proteins of the Bcl-2 family play a central role in the decisions the cell should take for its survival. It does exist proteins of this family that protect the cell from death and others that are favourable. The interaction balance between them determine thus the cellular destiny and its deregulation causes the onset of different kind of illnesses such as tumours or neurodegenerative diseases. Event though these proteins develop their function in the membrane, the interactions between their transmembrane fragments and its relevance in the control of the cell death were unknown.
The interest of this new work lies in the fact that the transmembrane interactions of these proteins represent a new point of pharmacology intervention for the treatment of this diseases. In particular, the family Bcl-2 proteins play a very important role in the development of resistance to antitumor treatments, so this study opens a new path for the development of new therapies. From a biotechnology view, this study offers, moreover, the necessary tools for the research and development of new medicines.
“The medicines developed to that moment against most kind of cancer had been focused on trying to regulate the interactions between soluble regions and these proteins. The main innovation of our work, therefore is that now we can have an additional target to regulate these processes and to design new drugs that modulate the interactions between the embedded domain on membranes”, says Ismael Mingarro.
Article:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/12/20/1612322114.long
Membrane Proteins Laboratory:
