G protein-coupled receptors as challenging druggable targets: insights from in silico studies

Abstract

The successful identification of hundreds of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represents the single greatest opportunity for novel drug development today. The crystal structure of rhodopsin provides the first information on the three-dimensional structure of GPCRs, which now supports homology modeling studies and structure-based drug-design approaches. We review our recent work on adenosine receptors, a family of GPCRs. Focusing our attention on A₃ adenosine receptor, we have demonstrated that the reciprocal integration of different theoretical and experimental disciplines can be very useful for the successful design of new, potent and selective receptor ligands.