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Deeper pharmacological characterization of hit and lead compounds is being enabled by novel assays to characterize target behaviour as well as by advances in structural biology. This article discusses key factors in pharmacological characterization in the context of G protein-coupled receptors as a target class, highlighting opportunities to identify drug candidates with the potential to address limitations of current therapies and to increase the probability of them succeeding in clinical trials.
Biohaven’s BHV-1300 lowered levels of immunoglobulin G in the blood of healthy volunteers — a first clinical demonstration of the potential of a small-molecule extracellular protein degrader.
Cigall Kadoch, a cancer researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and co-founder of Foghorn Therapeutics, discusses the case for a new wave of epigenetic drugs, targeting chromatin remodelling complexes.
Advances in understanding of the cause of autoimmune diseases and clinical data from novel therapeutic modalities such as chimeric antigen receptor T cells are providing evidence that it may be possible to re-establish immune homeostasis and, potentially, prolong remission or even cure autoimmune diseases. This article proposes a three-step ‘sequential immunotherapy’ framework for immune system modulation to help achieve this ambitious goal, and discusses existing drugs and those in development for each of the three steps.
Drugs that modulate fundamental mechanisms of ageing offer the promise of substantially improving the health of ageing populations, but innovative approaches to identify and evaluate such ‘gerotherapeutics’ are needed.