Word: receptor
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...further research supports the T1R3 receptor theory, and the results translate to humans, there could be great developments in the field of sugar. Highly specific taste tests, for example, could yield spectacularly realistic artificial sweeteners: Let's say you've got a new sweetener. If the sweet tooth receptor responds to it, you've hit pay dirt...
...hanging fruit--going first for the most obvious targets. In looking for anticancer drugs, for example, his researchers are concentrating on monoclonal antibodies, a type of biological "smart bomb" that targets cancer cells and leaves normal cells alone. Like all antibodies, these man-made cancer missiles seek out particular receptors--molecules on the cancer cell's surface that help the cell recognize and react to nearby enzymes and proteins. Almost a dozen such drugs are already on the market, including one called Herceptin. It zeroes in on the HER-2/neu receptor that sits on the surface of some breast...
...antibodies then go through testing to make sure they will bind to cancer cells with the designated receptor, that they can be absorbed by the body and that they won't have toxic side effects. Some of these studies can be done in the lab, but they quickly move into animal and finally human subjects. Already, Millennium has 40 potential targets for monoclonal-antibody drugs against various cancers, and Tepper's goal is to generate 10 to 12 new ones each year...
...different classes of compounds for molecules whose chemistry made them candidates to clamp down on ACE-2 activity. Then, with the help of protein-modeling software (see Bioinformatics box), they manipulated the chemical structure of their new inhibitor to give it optimal binding affinity with the ACE-2 receptor. In about two years, Millennium had created a new blood-pressure-drug candidate that is now being tested in animals...
...windows or doors into the cell; in order to get inside without destroying the cell (which has machinery the virus needs to reproduce itself), HIV has to find and pick the lock. To do this, it links simultaneously to an adjacent section on CD4 known as a cytokine receptor. Once the virus has bound to both CD4 and the cytokine, chemical changes take place that alter the structure of the cell's membrane, and the lock is "tripped." Fusion between the virus and the cell occurs, and HIV is free to spill its genome into the cell and begin replication...