Journal
MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
Volume 28, Issue 7, Pages 927-937Publisher
SPRINGER BIRKHAUSER
DOI: 10.1007/s00044-019-02352-2
Keywords
Microtubules inhibitors; Anti-cancer target; New tubulin binding sites; Drug discovery; Protein data bank
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Microtubules are cytoskeletal polymers of tubulin and composed of alpha- and beta-tubulin heterodimers, which are regarded as one of the most important, promising and successful targets for chemotherapeutic agents to treat cancer. With more and more tubulin-modulator co-crystal complex structures being solved, the mechanism of action (MOA) of microtubule targeting agents (MTAs) are well understood, which in turn inspired the development of more efficient tubulin modulators. By analyzing the reported tubulin modulators (most of them are inhibitors) that have been co-crystalized with tubulin and deposited in protein data bank (PDB), two new discovered inhibitor binding sites (maytansine and pironetin binding sites) on tubulin are elucidated, while the typical modulator binding sites (colchicine, taxanes, vinca alkaloids, and laulimalid binding sites) are also characterized. Among all the reported tubulin modulators, several inhibitors that bind to taxanes or vinca alkaloids binding sites have been approved by FDA to treat cancer. Thus, tubulin inhibitors discovery and design is still a hotspot in anticancer drug development. In this review, all the reported tubulin modulators that have co-crystal structures with tubulin in PDB are sorted out and classified according to their binding sites in tubulin. Besides, the ease or complexity of developing tubulin inhibitor on different binding sites on tubulin is also discussed. This work could contribute to discovering and designing new potent and specific modulators of tubulin.
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