Inhibition of Phosphatases (PRL) Trimerization

PRL (Phosphatases of Regenerating Liver) belong to the family of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs), whose overexpression contribute to metastasis by promoting cell migration and invasion, emerging as attractive targets for novel anticancer therapy.
The crystal structure of PRL1 shows that it exits as a trimeric structure, which is essential for mediating cell growth and migration. It has been suggested that trimerization is likely to be a general property for all PRL enzymes, and a distinct feature compared with other PTPs.
Our group is working in the design and synthesis of peptides and small molecules able to disrupt PRL trimerization in order to validate this approach as an innovative anticancer therapy.