Pharmacological chaperones: potential treatment for conformational diseases

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 222-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Bernier ◽  
Monique Lagacé ◽  
Daniel G Bichet ◽  
Michel Bouvier
Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (14) ◽  
pp. 3145 ◽  
Author(s):  
My Lan Tran ◽  
Yves Génisson ◽  
Stéphanie Ballereau ◽  
Cécile Dehoux

Protein misfolding induced by missense mutations is the source of hundreds of conformational diseases. The cell quality control may eliminate nascent misfolded proteins, such as enzymes, and a pathological loss-of-function may result from their early degradation. Since the proof of concept in the 2000s, the bioinspired pharmacological chaperone therapy became a relevant low-molecular-weight compound strategy against conformational diseases. The first-generation pharmacological chaperones were competitive inhibitors of mutant enzymes. Counterintuitively, in binding to the active site, these inhibitors stabilize the proper folding of the mutated protein and partially rescue its cellular function. The main limitation of the first-generation pharmacological chaperones lies in the balance between enzyme activity enhancement and inhibition. Recent research efforts were directed towards the development of promising second-generation pharmacological chaperones. These non-inhibitory ligands, targeting previously unknown binding pockets, limit the risk of adverse enzymatic inhibition. Their pharmacophore identification is however challenging and likely requires a massive screening-based approach. This review focuses on second-generation chaperones designed to restore the cellular activity of misfolded enzymes. It intends to highlight, for a selected set of rare inherited metabolic disorders, the strategies implemented to identify and develop these pharmacologically relevant small organic molecules as potential drug candidates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russel J Reiter ◽  
Qiang Ma ◽  
Ramaswamy Sharma

This review summarizes published reports on the utility of melatonin as a treatment for virus-mediated diseases. Of special note are the data related to the role of melatonin in influencing Ebola virus disease. This infection and deadly condition has no effective treatment and the published works documenting the ability of melatonin to attenuate the severity of viral infections generally and Ebola infection specifically are considered. The capacity of melatonin to prevent one of the major complications of an Ebola infection, i.e., the hemorrhagic shock syndrome, which often contributes to the high mortality rate, is noteworthy. Considering the high safety profile of melatonin, the fact that it is easily produced, inexpensive and can be self-administered makes it an attractive potential treatment for Ebola virus pathology.  


Diabetes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 233-LB ◽  
Author(s):  
KENT GRINDSTAFF ◽  
REMI MAGNAN ◽  
ROBIN SHANG ◽  
EMILY STENGER ◽  
JENNA S. HOLLAND ◽  
...  

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