We are still producing papers for this year

I have been very proud of our students lately. They have worked hard to publish their results and progress in their Ph.D. thesis. Firstly, Katayan and Juulia got their first Ph.D. paper (first for both) accepted in a precious journal called Molecular Pharmaceutics, so congratulations for both! This article Structural Features Affecting the Interactions and Transportability of LAT1-Targeted Pheylalanine Drug Conjugates (link), covered prodrug (substrate) transport studies that were supported by molecular modelling, and it gave us a very important information what kind of substrates L-type Amino Acid Transporter 1 (LAT1) can truly transport through its cavity, and which kind of structures do not favor LAT1-mediated transport. The size and flexibility were crucial factors, but also polarity and prodrug bond were found to have a great effect on the transportability via LAT1. Although, I'm only a co-supervisors for you both, it has been such a joy to work with you and seeing you learning about transporters!

And then Arun also got his second Organic Anion Transporting Polypeptide (OATP)- paper accepted to our special issue in Molecules (link). So congratulation Arun, also! In this paper called Comparative Modelling of Organic Anion Transporting Polypeptides: Structural Insights and Comparison of Binding Modes (link) (open access), Arun generated 11 homology models of different OATP subtypes, including OATP1A2, 1B1, 1B3, 1C1, 2A1, 2B1, 3A1, 4A1, 4C1, 5A1 and 6A1. Then, he did molecular dynamics simulations to understand the interactions of compounds and the distinct OATP subtypes in their binding pockets. With these created models and knowledge we can design better OATP-utilizing compounds in the future, and hopefully find specific interactions, by which also OATP-subtype specific utilization can be acheived. This is highly interesting aim to be achieved, since OATPs have different expression profiles in the brain; e.g., OATP3A1 is selectively expressed in the neurons, OATP2B1 in microglia, and OATP1C1 in astrocytes. So, if we are successful, we could achieve brain cell specific intrabrain targeting by utilizing specific OATP subtypes.