GPCR Mechanism and Drug Design
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2019) | Viewed by 29496
Special Issue Editor
2. Center for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology, University of Coimbra, 3004-535 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: data science; drug discovery; deep learning; computational chemistry; structural biology; protein–protein complexes; modeling; GPCRs; functional selectivity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Given the central role of G-Protein-Coupled receptors (GPCRs) in an enormous variety of cellular mechanisms in normal physiology and disease, it is not surprising that they are the subject of major mechanistic efforts toward understanding their function and signaling selectivity. New insights have been provided by the recent structures of GPCRs in selected “states” stabilized by a variety of ligands with pharmacologically distinct properties (agonists, inverse agonists, etc.), by nanobodies mimicking signal transducers, by full heterotrimeric G-proteins (GTP-binding protein) and by Arrestin proteins. However, the molecular mechanisms connecting the GPCR structures to these states, and these states to elements of functional mechanisms, are not yet resolved, nor are they likely to be resolved solely from inspection of static crystal structures. This Special Issue aims at addressing this important knowledge gap and collect new reports and insights from computational and experimental researchers on specific problems of great significance in GPCR signaling. The fundamental concept of “functional selectivity” or “ligand bias”, e.g., the molecular mechanisms for selectivity for different pathways and the design of new drugs targeting these pathways, is of enormous interest in molecular pharmacology, cell physiology, and drug development. Contributions to this issue, both in the form of original research or review articles, may cover all aspects of GPCR mechanism and drug design and multidisciplinary studies are particularly welcome.
Dr. Irina S. MoreiraGuest Editor
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Keywords
- G-Protein-Coupled receptors (GPCRs)
- Molecular Mechanism
- Functional Selectivity/Ligand Bias
- Drug Design and Discovery
- G-protein Coupling
- Arrestin Coupling
- In silico approaches in the study of GPCRs
- Biochemical and Biophysical approaches in the study of GPCRs
- Big Data in GPCR function/structure
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