ABSTRACT
Proteins play a central role in how drugs work. Drugs usually inhibit or activate proteins, replace them, or block their interactions. For example, drugs against HIV, such as saquinavir or tipranavir, are designed to inhibit a protease that the virus makes to reproduce itself inside cells. Some brain diseases-including Huntington’s, epilepsy, and ALS (amyotropic lateral sclerosis)—result from deregulation of neurosignaling by glutamate, a neurotransmitter, in synapses in the central nervous system. So, drugs such as memantine have been designed to regulate the activities of NMDA, an ionotropic glutamate receptor. And diabetics take insulin because their own pancreas does not provide enough of this protein to regulate their blood sugar levels.
