Drug Discovery Based on Targets and Signaling Pathways

Signal transduction participates in all life activities of cells and has the functions of regulating cell proliferation, metabolism, defense and adaptation. Abnormal cellular signaling is the molecular basis for the occurrence and development of all diseases. The process mainly includes three steps: the first is that cells receive signaling molecules; the second is the activation of intracellular signal pathways; and the third is the regulation of cell function and activity. Drug development based on target pathways places more emphasis on exploring drug functions through molecular mechanism research, which is beneficial for elucidating the pathological mechanisms of diseases and providing new ideas and target targets for new drug screening and development.

Apoptosis is a kind of programmed cell death to maintain the homeostasis of the internal environment. The main characteristics of apoptosis include chromatin concentration, karyorrhexis, cell membrane shrinkage and the formation of apoptotic bodies. Unlike cell necrosis, cell apoptosis does not cause inflammatory reactions. Apoptosis is a process regulated by multiple genes, and its biological mechanisms are very complex, including the tumor necrosis factor receptor family, caspase family, Bcl-2 protein family, P53, etc. At present, apoptosis is widely studied in the field of biomedicine in cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune diseases, etc.

Autophagy is a process in which eukaryotic cells degrade misfolded proteins and damaged organelles through lysosome under the control of autophagy genes. The regulation of autophagy mainly involves the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. The regulatory mechanism is relatively complex. According to the mode of transportation, autophagy can be divided into three types: macroautophagy, microautophagy, and chaperone-mediated autophagy. In recent years, autophagy has become one of the research hotspots in the field of biomedicine, which is related to aging, tumor, neural degenerative disease, microbial infection and other diseases.

Kinases are enzymes that transfer phosphate groups to substrate molecules, and this process is known as phosphorylation. Kinases are involved in various cellular life activities and are important switches that regulate intracellular signaling pathways. In recent years, abnormal activation of kinases has been proven to be an important therapeutic indicator for tumors, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases, and kinases have also become a hot target for new drug development. Currently, there are over 100 types of small molecule kinase inhibitors approved by the FDA worldwide.

MedChemExpress (MCE) according to targets and signaling pathway compound libraries cover a variety of popular and novel drug targets and signaling pathways. According to different target pathways, they can be divided into more than 40 compound libraries, with a wide product coverage. It provides a powerful tool for studying the pathological mechanisms of diseases and developing drugs based on target pathways.