The TREK subfamily of K2P channels (K2P2, K2P4 and K2P10) pass background potassium currents that modulate the excitability of neuronal cells and cardiac myocytes. In recent years, these channels have received significant attention as potential drug targets. This is in…

The historical context for this commentary can be found in this blogpost. This latest report, based on activity-based profiling (ABPP), constitutes the first open biochemical investigation of BIA 10-2474 (1). The ABPP results show it inhibits several lipases that are…

The glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) is a major target for treatment of Type 2 diabetes but has been refractory to the development of small molecule compounds as potential therapeutics. Song et al., (1) report the first crystal structures of the GLP-1R…

Molecular details of receptor activation remain scarce when it comes to Class Frizzled receptors and even less is known about the dynamics between the N-terminal cysteine rich domain (CRD) and the transmembrane domain (TMD) in the absence and presence of…

Ca2+-ATPases are members of the P-type transporters and are usually regarded as post-stimulus recovery mechanisms, allowing calcium ions to be removed from the cytosol either via re-accumulation into sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum (the SERCA pumps) or extrusion outside the cell (the PMCA…

The last 10 years has seen a huge increase in the numbers of X-ray structures solved for GPCRs. However solving fully active structures in complex with G proteins remains challenging. Recent advances in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), including improved direct electron…

The novel GPCR peptide ligand Elabela/Toddler (APELA, Ela), first identified in the fish Danio and critical for the development of the heart, has now been identified in the human cardiovascular system. Yang et al. [1] have recently showed that the…

Neurokinin B signalling is increased in menopausal women and has been implicated as an important mediator of hot flushes. A phase 2 trial has assessed the effectiveness of an oral neurokinin 3 receptor antagonist (MLE4901). Results showed it safely and…

The intracellular signal transduction processes activated by the angiotensin AT2 receptor, are atypical for a GPCR and different from the AT1 receptor. Although the classic motifs a GPCR are present in AT2 receptor; it fails to demonstrate classic features of…

Adiponectin receptors, divided into Adipo1 and Adipo2, were initially classed as GPCR on the basis of hydropathy analysis suggesting seven transmembrane domains.  However, they appear to be present in the cell membrane in a topology inverted compared to the 7TM…

Despite a flurry of mammalian ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter structures in the last 2 years the Holy Grail has still been to determine how these diverse proteins interact with their transport substrates. Jue Chen and colleagues at the Rockefeller…

GPR139 is an orphan class A G protein-coupled receptor found mainly in the central nervous system. It has its highest expression in the striatum and hypothalamus, regions regulating locomotion and metabolism, respectively, and it has therefore been suggested as a…

This year witnessed a tremendous progress in our understanding of the structure-function relationship of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels. This is based on the cryo-electron microscopy structure of the rabbit Cav1.1 Ca2+ channel complex at a nominal resolution of 3.6 Å ([1]…

The number of alternative mRNA splice forms that map to human protein coding loci has increased to the point that nearly all proteins have such associated database records. This gives rise to the paradox that the gene build pipeline from…

Endothelin is a peptide that acts via two G-protein coupled receptors. ETA mainly causes vasoconstriction. In contrast ETB  predominantly acts as a beneficial clearing receptor and by the release of endothelium derived relaxing factors, vasodilatation [1,2]. This paper  describes for…

A team including the Gloriam Group at the University of Copenhagen (also the home of GPCRDB) have paper out in Nature Chemistry reporting the first total synthesis of YM-254890 and FR900359 [1] . These are related cyclic depsipeptide natural products that…

Extracellular ATP is able to activate two families of cell-surface receptors, one of which is the ligand-gated ion channel family of P2X receptors. This family of cation channels is distinct from the remainder of the ligand-gated ion channels, as they…

In a recent article in Nature [1], Wu et al. present the cryo-electron microscopy structure of the rabbit Cav1.1 complex at a nominal resolution of 3.6 Å.

Changeux and Christopoulos have recently described in Cell [1] how common mechanisms link the allosteric sites of activation and response within the four major receptor families of ligand- and voltage-gated ion channels, G-protein-coupled receptors, nuclear hormone receptors, and receptor tyrosine kinases. As…

Leck et al. in Nature, describes a tour de force largest scale reference data set of high-quality protein-coding variation generated via the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC)

Manglik et al., writing in Nature, believe they may have found a new form of painkiller that works just as well as morphine but lacks its potentially lethal side effect.

The key value of our curation is the extraction of chemistry-activity-target data from papers.