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Keywords
Abstract

Integrins are a family of α/β heterodimeric cell surface adhesion receptors which are capable of transmitting signals bidirectionally across membranes. They are known for their therapeutic potential in a wide range of diseases. However, the development of integrin-targeting medications has been impacted by unexpected downstream effects including unwanted agonist-like effects. Allosteric modulation of integrins is a promising approach to potentially overcome these limitations. Applying mixed-solvent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to integrins, the current study uncovers hitherto unknown allosteric sites within the integrin α I domains of LFA-1 (αLβ2; CD11a/CD18), VLA-1 (α1β1; CD49a/CD29), and Mac-1 (αMβ2, CD11b/CD18). We show that these pockets are putatively accessible to small-molecule modulators. The findings reported here may provide opportunities for the design of novel allosteric integrin inhibitors lacking the unwanted agonism observed with earlier as well as current integrin-targeting drugs.

Year of Publication
2023
Journal
Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling
Volume
63
Number of Pages
3878–3891
Date Published
2023 June 13
Type of Article
Research Article
DOI
10.1021/acs.jcim.3c00480
Alternate Journal
J. Chem. Inf. Model.
PMCID
PMC10302478
PMID
37310029
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