Receptor insights may lead way to custom-made cancer treatment

A recent study published in Nature Communications, co-authored by SciLifeLab Fellow Jens Carlsson (Uppsala University), has identified how a group of G protein-coupled receptors is affected by cancer mutations. This may lead to new drugs being developed.

Class F, or Class Frizzled, is a group of of G protein-coupled receptors that are considered valuable therapeutic targets due to their role in human disease. Despite this, structural changes accompanying receptor activation remain unexplored – until now.

Knowledge of how cancer mutations affect certain types of receptors on the surface of the cell opens up for the development of custom-made drugs for treating different types of cancer. According to Gunnar Schulte, professor at Karolinska Institutet and one of the authors of the study, there are indications that other types of disease may be linked to mutations in these receptors as well.

“Faulty Class F receptors can be linked to different forms of cancer. When we now can describe in molecular detail how the receptors are activated, we can try to find drugs that inhibits this activation and thereby prevents the growth of tumors”, says Gunnar Schulte in a press release by Karolinska Institutet.