Ces3 (Ces1) Inhibition As a Drug Target

Update: the nomenclature of these enzymes is messy - see the comments. Here's another activity-based proteomics result that I've been meaning to link to - in this one, the Cravatt group strengthens the case for carboxylesterase 3 as a potential target for metabolic disease. From what I can see, that enzyme was first identified back in about 2004, one of who-knows-how-many others that have similar mechanisms and can hydrolyze who-knows-how-many esters and ester-like substrates. Picking your way through all those things from first principles would be a nightmare - thus the activity-based approach, where you look for interesting phenotypes and work backwards. In this case, they were measuring adipocyte behavior, specifically differentiation and lipid accumulation. A preliminary screen suggested that there were a lot of serine hydrolase enzymes active in these cells, and a screen with around 150 structurally diverse carbamates gave several showing phenotypic changes. The next step in the process is to figure out what particular enzymes are responsible, which can be done by fluorescence labeling (since the carbamates are making covalent bonds in the enzyme active sites. They found my old friend hormone-sensitive lipase, as well they should, but there was another enzyme that wasn't so easy to identify. One particular carbamate, the unlovely but useful WWL113, was reasonably selective for the enzyme of interest, which turned out to be the abovementioned carboxyesterase 3 (Ces3). ...
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Biological News Source Type: blogs