Strategies in Protein-Based Rational Drug Design
Thomas Kieber‐Emmons · 2023
Of the strategies being considered for disease management, the use of native proteins as templates to develop therapeutic agents continues to be touted as one of the most powerful. This notion has grown from identification of many peptides with potent stimulatory and inhibitory effects on cell proliferation in the past ten years. Growth factors represented by interleukins are a good example. These polypeptides were first defined as signalling molecules controlling activities of cells in the immune system. However, it has now been shown that many of these peptides are multifunctional in that any one peptide in this set may exhibit proliferative effects, anti-proliferative effects, and effects unrelated to proliferation [ 1 ]. An appreciation of the ligand-receptor interactions underlying these functionalities can lead to a variety of synthetic chemical agents for medical applications.