Discovering the role of metal ions in G protein-coupled receptor signalling and drug discovery
Recently, our published a work entitled “The role of metal ions in G protein-coupled receptor signalling and drug discovery” on Computational Molecular Science .
Metal ions, such as Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+ and Zn2+, are highly abundant in biological systems. For many G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), metal ions, especially Na+, have been found to stabilize the receptors’ inactivate state preventing receptor activation. Beside this role, recent studies indicated that metal ions can modulate ligand-GPCR interactions allosterically. These findings on ion mediated GPCR signalling open new vistas for understanding the functioning of GPCRs and further could help in designing potent therapeutic compounds targeting GPCRs. Here we report on recent findings about role of orthosteric and allosteric metal ions in GPCR signalling and drug discovery.
The full text can be found here, https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcms.1565
