new uses for old enzymes tagged posts

Structure of the MMP8 protein. Based on PyMOL rendering of PDB 1a85 Credit: Emw

Researchers identify a potentially significant new application for a well-known human enzyme that may help treat respiratory diseases eg asthma. Many enzymes are already well characterised and their functions fairly well understood eg. MMP8 is present in connective tissues of most mammals, where it breaks the chemical bonds found in collagen. In pre-clinical research Dr F Hollfelder (Dept of Biochemistry at Cambridge) and Dr L. Jermutus, Sr Director (R&D at MedImmune) mapped a list of proteases against potential protein drug targets.

Using automation technology at MedImmune, the team then tested each of the enzymes against each target protein in turn, allowing them to identify a significant number of so-far unk...