Research lead
Scientists funded by the charity Cancer Research UK have created the first complete model of an enzyme that controls a key cell signalling network involved in the development of cancer, and shown how a known anti-cancer drug controls its activity.
The researchers at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute used a combination of imaging and modeling to create a 3D interactive model of the enzyme protein kinase B (PKB), and to observe how it functions in cells.
The 3D structure will assist the development of other drugs that work on this target. It will also help to discover how existing drugs work to switch PKB off, so that it behaves normally.
Banafshe Larijani, head of the Cell Biophysics Laboratory at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute, said, “An overactive form of PKB is observed in tumours, so finding a way to switch this enzyme off lets us, in effect, put up road blocks along routes by which cancer can develop.”
www.london-research-institute.co.uk
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