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Novel and truly useful molecular targets for drug discovery are all too uncommon. Nevertheless, the identification of such biologically validated targets represents the critical first step in the drug discovery effort upon which all subsequent investment of resources is predicated. Environmental stress response pathways have been recognized as valid targets for a variety of diseases, including cancer and inflammatory conditions, because they are activated predominantly within the context of the disease state. At UCSD fundamental new insights have been made into the cell biology of the mammalian osmotic stress response that have clear and profound implications to human diseases. The relevance of osmotic stress to the normal function of the kidney has long been recognized, but there was previously little or no appreciation of the role of osmotic stress in either extrarenal or diseased tissues.
Recent results from studies of an essential, ubiquitously expressed intermediate in the mammalian osmotic stress response pathway definitively demonstrate that the osmotic stress response is critical for normal cell growth and viability specifically under conditions of osmotic stress. In addition, conditions of osmotic stress in vivo are clearly not limited to the kidney, and are of particular relevance to the microenvironments found in association with disease. In addition to providing a completely novel, biologically validated target for drug development, these discoveries on the mammalian osmotic stress response pathway and the essential molecular components of the pathway may also provide the basis for diagnostics or unique methods for identifying therapeutic agents for a wide variety of diseases such as cancer, stroke, myocardial infarction, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.
Case No: SD2004-155
Inquiries To: invent@ucsd.edu
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