Head Office Website
Introduction : A powerful tool in chemical biology research
In most pharmaceutical reactions, a compound known as an active ingredient first binds to a specific target protein called a “receptor”, and then activates the receptor to exert a certain biological effect. Remarkable scientific advancements in molecular biology have been achieved in the past few decades. Thus, we are now able to screen chemical compounds that activate specific protein receptors and to optimize the chemical structures of hit compounds, allowing a pharmaceutical to effectively address a certain disease. This approach is now becoming mainstream in drug discovery research.
However, even with the latest technologies, we still can neither predict all the interactions between a receptor protein and specific compounds within the human body, nor understand the series of complicated reactions and responses elicited by certain receptors.
“Receptor Fishing” is a methodology implemented in order to capture and identify certain target proteins that bind to a specific chemical compound. Since most compounds strongly bind to a specific protein that causes the main biological effects, we can analyze the bound protein and identify it. Therefore, we can apply this process to discover receptors associated with certain effects. Some compounds simultaneously bind to several different target proteins. If we could discover a receptor that binds to a certain drug, but does not cause the main biological effects, then we may predict the side effects of the drug.