Getting fat off PI3Kgamma

A team of Swiss researchers has shown that knocking out an isoform of the cancer target phosphoinositide 3-kinase led to weight loss and increased insulin sensitivity in mice.¹ The challenge will be designing compounds that are selective for the g-isoform because its structural features have thus far made it much more intractable to drug design than the other isoforms.

Phosphoinositide 3-kinase-g (PI3Kg) is one of four isoforms (a, b, g and d) in the PI3K family. The kinases play a central role in signaling pathways that contribute to cell growth, proliferation, motility and survival...