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Review
. 2023 Aug:214:115680.
doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2023.115680. Epub 2023 Jul 1.

Cryo-EM structures of actin binding proteins as tool for drug discovery

Christian Dahlstroem  1 , Themistoklis Paraschiakos  1 , Han Sun  2 , Sabine Windhorst  3
Affiliations
Review

Cryo-EM structures of actin binding proteins as tool for drug discovery

Christian Dahlstroem et al. Biochem Pharmacol. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Cellular actin dynamic is controlled by a plethora of actin binding proteins (ABPs), including actin nucleating, bundling, cross-linking, capping, and severing proteins. In this review, regulation of actin dynamics by ABPs will be introduced, and the role of the F-actin severing protein cofilin-1 and the F-actin bundling protein L-plastin in actin dynamics discussed in more detail. Since up-regulation of these proteins in different kinds of cancers is associated with malignant progression of cancer cells, we suggest the cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) structure of F- actin with the respective ABP as template for in silico drug design to specifically disrupt the interaction of these ABPs with F-actin.

Keywords: Actin; Cancer; Cryo-EM; Cytoskeleton; Drug design; Metastasis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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