STING Pathway Targeted Therapies: Competitive Landscape, Clinical Trial Landscape, Literature Review, Patent & Deal Analysis, 2021
30-04-2021
Controlled perturbation of protein activity is essential to study protein function in cells and living organisms. Small molecules that hijack the cellular protein ubiquitination machinery to selectively degrade proteins of interest, so-called degraders, have recently emerged as alternatives to selective chemical inhibitors, both as therapeutic modalities and as powerful research tools. These systems offer unprecedented temporal and spatial control over protein function.
- This is achieved using heterobifunctional small molecules,
- which Gollob emphasised are different from antibodies or
- oligonucleotides, where tissue distribution and/or cellular
- uptake is limited by size and other physicochemical properties.
- He explained that these heterobifunctional small molecules have
- the potential to greatly expand the druggable proteome by
- accessing new targets with a modality that is not restricted to
- just a few organs or to extracellular proteins.
- Gollob explained that the activation
- of toll-like receptors (TLRs) and
- interleukin-1 receptors (IL-1Rs)
- underlies the biology of multiple
- different inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
- Signals through these receptors activate immune c
- ells and cause them to make pro-inflammatory
- molecules, such as cytokines and chemokines,
- which then further activate the immune system.