Small molecule fills hormone's shoes
Barinaga, M.
Science 281(5374): 149 151
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9687270 Document Number: 497836
In this issue, researchers at Ligand Pharmaceuticals in San Diego and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals in Collegeville and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, describe a small molecule that activates the receptor for granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). G-CSF, a protein hormone that promotes the growth of white blood cells, is frequently administered to patients after chemotherapy, which impairs immunity. G-CSF, insulin, and other so-called cytokines cannot be taken orally because they are broken down in the digestive tract. Although the Ligand-Smithkline Beecham molecule works in mice but not humans, it has, says Mark Goldsmith of the University of California, San Francisco, greatly advanced the search for oral substitutes for protein drugs.