B Family Album -Structural Biology: First structures of class B G protein-coupled receptors may aid drug hunts

A computer model of a full-length glucagon receptor (left) and a crystal structure of a corticotropin-releasing factor receptor (right) add details of class B receptors to the class A structures already on the GPCR family tree.

Credit: Katya Kadyshevskaya

As many as 30% of drugs on the market target G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a family of signaling conduits that snake back and forth across cell membranes. But there are several classes of these proteins, and scientists’ knowledge of the structures is almost entirely restricted to just one, the class A subtype. So drugs could be missing a lot of targets. Aim could improve, however, now that researchers have the first two reports of class B GPCR structures (Nature 2013, DOI: 10.1038/nature12357 and10.1038/nature12393

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