This book reviews recent advances regarding the biochemical and biophysical properties of membrane proteins and their applications in biomedicine. Divided into two thematic parts, this second volume addresses proteins’ formation, signaling and malfunctions. It covers a number of important membrane proteins including receptors, cell adhesion molecules, single-transmembrane proteins and viral membrane proteins, and discusses their structures, functions, related diseases, and roles in drug discovery in detail. In turn, the book elucidates the lifecycle of membrane proteins, including their synthesis and facilitated folding process, as well as QC procedures for their production. Additional topics include fundamental concepts, the latest findings, and critical puzzles yet to be solved. Given its scope, the book will appeal to a broad readership in the field of membrane structural and functional biology. Junior scientists can use it as an introduction to the field, while advanced scientists will find a broader view of the field beyond their area of specialization.

Transporters and channels are membrane proteins that mediate the traffic of metabolites, water and ions across biological membranes. Membrane transport proteins are crucial to maintain homeostasis and assure cell survival upon intracellular or environmental stress. A failure of any of these transport systems may have dramatic consequences for cell function. There is increasing evidence that membrane transport proteins play important functions in healthy conditions and that their absence or dysfunction may cause diseases. In recent years much attention has been paid to diseases resulting from defective transporters (“carrier diseases”) and ion channels (“channelopathies”). Very interestingly, altered expression of transporters has been described in several human pathologies. On this basis, many transport proteins are well acknowledged targets for drugs. Many others are involved in drug delivery and disposition and/or are considered potential targets. Others are off-targets for drugs and then, are responsible for side effects. Thus, membrane protein drug discovery is now an emerging field where the search for physiological mechanisms of regulation and for chemical compounds as modulators of transport activity, present new opportunities for drug development and for new therapies. This Research Topic addresses the latest research advances in membrane transport proteins, stimulating future research on these important protein families.

Membrane proteins continue to be prime drug targets because they perform essential processes in the cell including controlling the flow of information and materials between cells and mediating activities like hormone action and nerve impulses. The study of membrane proteins could lead to new and improved pharmaceutical treatments for a wide range of illnesses such as heart disease, cystic fibrosis and depression. Membrane Proteins as Drug Targets reviews the latest developments in the field. - Discusses new discoveries, approaches, and ideas in the field of membrane proteins and reviews how they are being used to develop new drugs - Contributions from leading scholars and industry experts - Reference guide for researchers involved in molecular biology and related fields

With the most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of structure-based drug discovery covering both experimental and computational approaches, Structural Biology in Drug Discovery: Methods, Techniques, and Practices describes principles, methods, applications, and emerging paradigms of structural biology as a tool for more efficient drug development. Coverage includes successful examples, academic and industry insights, novel concepts, and advances in a rapidly evolving field. The combined chapters, by authors writing from the frontlines of structural biology and drug discovery, give readers a valuable reference and resource that: Presents the benefits, limitations, and potentiality of major techniques in the field such as X-ray crystallography, NMR, neutron crystallography, cryo-EM, mass spectrometry and other biophysical techniques, and computational structural biology Includes detailed chapters on druggability, allostery, complementary use of thermodynamic and kinetic information, and powerful approaches such as structural chemogenomics and fragment-based drug design Emphasizes the need for the in-depth biophysical characterization of protein targets as well as of therapeutic proteins, and for a thorough quality assessment of experimental structures Illustrates advances in the field of established therapeutic targets like kinases, serine proteinases, GPCRs, and epigenetic proteins, and of more challenging ones like protein-protein interactions and intrinsically disordered proteins

As opposed to other books on the topic, this volume is unique in also covering emerging transporter targets. Following a general introduction to the importance of targeting transporter proteins with drugs, the book systematically presents individual transporter classes and explains their pharmacology and physiology. The text covers all transporter families with known or suspected importance as drug targets, including neurotransmitter transporters, ABC transporters, glucose transporters and organic ion transporters. The final part discusses recent advances in structural studies of transport proteins, assay methods for transport activity, and the systems biology of transporters and their regulation. With its focus on drug development issues, this authoritative overview is required reading for researchers in industry and academia targeting transport proteins for the treatment of disease.

Designed as a research-level guide to current strategies and methods of membrane protein production on the small to intermediate scale, this practice-oriented book provides detailed, step-by-step laboratory protocols as well as an explanation of the principles behind each method, together with a discussion of its relative advantages and disadvantages. Following an introductory section on current challenges in membrane protein production, the book goes on to look at expression systems, emerging methods and approaches, and protein specific considerations. Case studies illustrate how to select or sample the optimal production system for any desired membrane protein, saving both time and money on the laboratory as well as the technical production scale. Unique in its coverage of "difficult" proteins with large membrane-embedded domains, proteins from extremophiles, peripheral membrane proteins, and protein fragments.

The rational, structure-based approach has become standard in present-day drug design. As a consequence, the availability of high-resolution structures of target proteins is more often than not the basis for an entire drug development program. Protein structures suited for rational drug design are almost exclusively derived from crystallographic studies, and drug developers are relying heavily on the power of this method. Here, researchers from leading pharmaceutical companies present valuable first-hand information, much of it published for the first time. They discuss strategies to derive high-resolution structures for such important target protein classes as kinases or proteases, as well as selected examples of successful protein crystallographic studies. A special section on recent methodological developments, such as for high-throughput crystallography and microcrystallization, is also included. A valuable companion for crystallographers involved in protein structure determination as well as drug developers pursuing the structure-based approach for use in their daily work.

PROVIDES STRATEGIES AND CONCEPTS FOR UNDERSTANDING CHEMICAL PROTEOMICS, AND ANALYZING PROTEIN FUNCTIONS, MODIFICATIONS, AND INTERACTIONS—EMPHASIZING MASS SPECTROMETRY THROUGHOUT Covering mass spectrometry for chemical proteomics, this book helps readers understand analytical strategies behind protein functions, their modifications and interactions, and applications in drug discovery. It provides a basic overview and presents concepts in chemical proteomics through three angles: Strategies, Technical Advances, and Applications. Chapters cover those many technical advances and applications in drug discovery, from target identification to validation and potential treatments. The first section of Mass Spectrometry-Based Chemical Proteomics starts by reviewing basic methods and recent advances in mass spectrometry for proteomics, including shotgun proteomics, quantitative proteomics, and data analyses. The next section covers a variety of techniques and strategies coupling chemical probes to MS-based proteomics to provide functional insights into the proteome. In the last section, it focuses on using chemical strategies to study protein post-translational modifications and high-order structures. Summarizes chemical proteomics, up-to-date concepts, analysis, and target validation Covers fundamentals and strategies, including the profiling of enzyme activities and protein-drug interactions Explains technical advances in the field and describes on shotgun proteomics, quantitative proteomics, and corresponding methods of software and database usage for proteomics Includes a wide variety of applications in drug discovery, from kinase inhibitors and intracellular drug targets to the chemoproteomics analysis of natural products Addresses an important tool in small molecule drug discovery, appealing to both academia and the pharmaceutical industry Mass Spectrometry-Based Chemical Proteomics is an excellent source of information for readers in both academia and industry in a variety of fields, including pharmaceutical sciences, drug discovery, molecular biology, bioinformatics, and analytical sciences.

The aim of this book is to discuss the fundamental ideas which lie behind the statistical theory of learning and generalization. It considers learning as a general problem of function estimation based on empirical data. Omitting proofs and technical details, the author concentrates on discussing the main results of learning theory and their connections to fundamental problems in statistics. This second edition contains three new chapters devoted to further development of the learning theory and SVM techniques. Written in a readable and concise style, the book is intended for statisticians, mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists.