142 research outputs found

    Drug Discovery Using Chemical Systems Biology: Identification of the Protein-Ligand Binding Network To Explain the Side Effects of CETP Inhibitors

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    Systematic identification of protein-drug interaction networks is crucial to correlate complex modes of drug action to clinical indications. We introduce a novel computational strategy to identify protein-ligand binding profiles on a genome-wide scale and apply it to elucidating the molecular mechanisms associated with the adverse drug effects of Cholesteryl Ester Transfer Protein (CETP) inhibitors. CETP inhibitors are a new class of preventive therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. However, clinical studies indicated that one CETP inhibitor, Torcetrapib, has deadly off-target effects as a result of hypertension, and hence it has been withdrawn from phase III clinical trials. We have identified a panel of off-targets for Torcetrapib and other CETP inhibitors from the human structural genome and map those targets to biological pathways via the literature. The predicted protein-ligand network is consistent with experimental results from multiple sources and reveals that the side-effect of CETP inhibitors is modulated through the combinatorial control of multiple interconnected pathways. Given that combinatorial control is a common phenomenon observed in many biological processes, our findings suggest that adverse drug effects might be minimized by fine-tuning multiple off-target interactions using single or multiple therapies. This work extends the scope of chemogenomics approaches and exemplifies the role that systems biology has in the future of drug discovery

    Measurement of the inclusive and differential Higgs boson production cross sections in the decay mode to a pair of τ Leptons in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=13  TeV

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    Measurements of the inclusive and differential fiducial cross sections of the Higgs boson are presented, using the τ lepton decay channel. The differential cross sections are measured as functions of the Higgs boson transverse momentum, jet multiplicity, and transverse momentum of the leading jet in the event, if any. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13  TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138  fb^{-1}. These are the first differential measurements of the Higgs boson cross section in the final state of two τ leptons. In final states with a large jet multiplicity or with a Lorentz-boosted Higgs boson, these measurements constitute a significant improvement over measurements performed in other final states

    Search for Higgs Boson Pair Production in the Four b Quark Final State in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=13 TeV

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    Search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced via vector boson fusion in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

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    Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

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    In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field
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