Throughout joint research with Prof. Cha Ok SEOK at Seoul National University, Prof. Ga Young CHUNG and her research team of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at SKKU has investigated the action mechanism of Wnt signaling.
Wnt signal transduction is a key signaling mechanism of our body that regulates embryonic development, cancer development, tissue regeneration, etc. by a type of hormone called Wnt. .
Such Wnt signaling is mediated through Frizzled receptors, one of the receptor families called GPCRs. The GPCR receptor family regulates various functions of the body including vision, olfactory, cardiovascular, brain, immune, metabolism, and 40% of currently used drugs act on GPCR receptors. For this reason, scientists who studied the action mechanism of the GPCR receptor group won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physiology, the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology, and 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
However, the action mechanism of Frizzled receptors in the GPCR receptor group is not clear compared to the pathophysiological significance.
Therefore, this study has elucidated the principle of binding of Wnt hormone to Frizzled receptors and the principle of lower signaling through fusion of various techniques such as structural analysis, mass spectrometry, computer modeling, and cell biological techniques.
The study was published online August 13 in the world's acclaimed report, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA (Impact Factor: 9.504).
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