Potential new drug target identified by Scripps research

For years, science has generally considered the phosphorylation of proteins - the insertion of a phosphorous group into a protein that turns it on or off - as perhaps the factor regulating a range of cellular processes from cell metabolism to programmed cell death, comments EurekAlert.

Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified the importance of a novel protein-regulating mechanism - called sulfenylation - that is similar to phosphorylation and may, in fact, open up opportunities to develop new types of drugs for diseases such as cancer. The study was published December 11, in an advance on-line edition of the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

"With this paper, we've elevated protein sulfenylation from a marker of oxidative stress to a bona fide reversible post translational modification that plays a key regulatory role during cell signaling," said Kate Carroll, a Scripps Research associate professor who led the study, noting: "The sulfenyl modification is the new kid on the block."