People with osteoporosis, heart failure or a cancer diagnosis are hoping for better medication. A special group of protein molecules on the surface of our cells could play a major role in the future. It is called adhesion GPCR, but hardly anyone knows about it. That is precisely the problem. Researchers at Leipzig University want to change that.
30 years of research in one study
So-called receptors are located on the surface of every human cell. You can think of them as antennas. They receive signals from the outside and pass them on to the inside of the cell. Adhesion GPCRs are a special group of such antennae. They react both to chemical messengers and to mechanical stimuli, for example when tissue is stretched. Of the 33 known human representatives of this group, 17 are associated with certain diseases, including diseases of the cardiovascular system, disorders of myelination, metabolic diseases and cancer.
Researchers from the Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry at the Leipzig Faculty of Medicine have now pooled this knowledge together with colleagues from Shandong University in China. Their overview study has been published in "Nature Reviews Drug Discovery", one of the world's leading journals for drug research. Publications there are by invitation only, which underlines the importance of the work.
The study lists all known natural and artificially produced active substances that can influence these receptors. It thus bundles around 30 years of research in almost 300 scientific papers. "Knowledge about the role of adhesion GPCRs in human diseases is growing rapidly," says study leader Prof. Dr. Dr. Ines Liebscher. With this work, her team wants to contribute to further strengthening the bridge between basic research and clinical application.
First discover, then cure
Not a single drug that specifically targets adhesion GPCRs has yet been approved. However, several new active substances are already being researched that act specifically on these receptors and could one day be used as drugs. Together with their Chinese colleagues, the Leipzig researchers recently discovered a new active substance called AP503. It specifically switches on a certain receptor in the cells. In experiments with mice, the substance improved muscle strength and slowed bone loss in osteoporosis. Active substances that only trigger specific reactions in the cell are particularly promising. They should help to achieve the desired effect - preferably without severe side effects.
Leipzig is internationally regarded as a leading center in this field of research. Since 2019, the scientists have also been working in the German Research Foundation's Collaborative Research Center 1423. There is still a long way to go before such molecules actually become approved drugs. But the foundations for this are now being laid.
Original publication:
Original publication in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery: The therapeutic potential of orphan adhesion G-protein-coupled receptors.
