Qi-Zhuang Ye*, Donald Hupe and Linda Johnson Pages 407 - 418 ( 12 )
Molecular biology has provided a range of tools for drug research. The work in the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) catalytic domain area demonstrated one of the molecular biology approaches to drug discovery. Matrix metalloproteinases are a family of zinc containing proteinases involved in connective tissue remodeling and implicated in diseases such as arthritis, cancer metastasis, and periodontal diseases. Several catalytic domains of human MMPs have been expressed in E. coli and used for random inhibitor screening, protein/inhibitor complex structural determinations, and protein structure-function studies, promising a new generation of MMP inhibitors with high affinity, high selectivity, and high bioavailability as therapeutical agents.