Closer to the Boundary
Work in Gwangju has brought medicine one step closer to effective membrane-permeable drugs
Of all drugs capable of crossing the cell membranes, most are too small to affect intracellular protein–protein interactions (PPIs) – but new research published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry could help change this. Led by Jiwon Seo, an associate professor at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea, a team of scientists have found that a peptide, cyclosporin O (CsO), could help produce medicines capable of crossing cell membranes and interfering with PPIs.
Seo’s team investigated various properties of CsO and its derivatives and compared them with cyclosporin A (CsA), a similarly promising, but flawed, candidate for membrane-crossing, PPI-disrupting medicine. They found that CsO did not cross membranes as effectively as CsA, but outperformed CsA in terms of pharmacokinetic profile and plasma concentration.
Although further study will be necessary, Seo remains optimistic that his team’s work could open up new avenues for tackling undruggable targets including cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and metabolic diseases.
See also:a poster from the GIST that breaks down the science beind the research
Between studying for my English undergrad and Publishing master's degrees I was out in Shanghai, teaching, learning, and getting extremely lost. Now I'm expanding my mind down a rather different rabbit hole: the pharmaceutical industry. Outside of this job I read mountains of fiction and philosophy, and I must say, it's very hard to tell who's sharper: the literati, or the medicine makers.
