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Protein translocation as a tool: The current rapamycin story
Author(s) -
Putyrski Mateusz,
Schultz Carsten
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2012.04.061
Subject(s) - cell function , inducer , enzyme , function (biology) , receptor , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , computational biology , chemical biology , biochemistry , cell , biology , pharmacology , gene
In cell biology and pharmacology, small chemicals are mostly used as agonists and antagonists against receptors and enzymes. The immunosuppressant rapamycin can serve an entirely different purpose: if employed sensibly, it might function as an inducer of dimerization that is able to rapidly activate enzyme activity inside the intact cell. A number of very recent developments such as photoactivatable derivatives make rapamycin an even more attractive tool for basic science.