G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as heptahelical or 7-transmembrane receptors, are the largest family of membrane receptors. They are implicated in many human pathologies, and they represent an exceptionally important class of receptors to be studied, as they are crucial to key physiological functions from neurotransmission to cell growth to blood pressure regulation. A […]
The challenges of CNS Drug Discovery In the last decades, few clinically active drugs for brain disorders were identified, and many research projects have been abandoned because of drawbacks in the drug discovery pipeline. One of the main CNS drug discovery challenges, is to understand the mechanisms that govern blood–brain barrier permeability. This is mainly due to the physical restriction of the membrane as well as the activity of efflux transporters present, that create an obstacle to drug delivery into […]
By Giorgia Zaetta – Dec. 11, 2020 Lipophilicity is the property of a molecule that describes its distribution between water and octanol, and it is the expression of the intermolecular forces that dictate the solvation in the aqueous and organic phases. Lipophilicity and hydrophobicity are often used as equivalent concepts; however, they are not strictly […]
By Lluis Campos – Sep. 23, 2020 Molecular Docking is a key tool in Structure Based Drug Discovery (SBDD), as it aims to determine the predominant binding mode of a ligand to a target protein. The process requires 1) a three-dimensional structure of the target protein and 2) the generation of thousands of poses for […]