Monobodies as possible next-generation protein therapeutics - a perspective.

Monobodies as possible next-generation protein therapeutics - a perspective. Swiss Med Wkly. 2017 Nov 29;147:w14545 Authors: Hantschel O Abstract Over the past two decades, hundreds of new somatic mutations have been identified in tumours, and a few dozen novel cancer therapeutics that selectively target these mutated oncoproteins have entered clinical practice. This development has resulted in clinical breakthroughs for a few tumour types, but more commonly patients' overall survival has not improved because of the development of drug resistance. Furthermore, only a very limited number of oncoproteins, largely protein kinases, are successfully targeted, whereas most non-kinase oncoproteins inside cancer cells remain untargeted. Engineered small protein inhibitors offer great promise in targeting a larger variety of oncoproteins with better efficacy and higher selectivity. In this article, I focus on a promising class of synthetic binding proteins, termed monobodies, that we have shown to inhibit previously untargetable protein-protein interactions in different oncoproteins. I will discuss the great promise alongside the technical challenges inherent in converting monobodies from potent pre-clinical target validation tools to next-generation protein-based therapeutics. PMID: 29185244 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Swiss Medical Weekly - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Swiss Med Wkly Source Type: research