Inhibiting epidermal growth factor receptor at a distance.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase is implicated in a large number of human cancers. Most EGFR inhibitors target the extracellular, growth factor-binding domain or the intracellular, ATP-binding domain. Here we describe molecules that inhibit the kinase activity of EGFR in a new way, by competing with formation of an essential intradimer coiled coil containing the juxtamembrane segment from each member of the receptor partnership.

A β-peptide agonist of the GLP-1 receptor, a class B GPCR.

Previous work has shown that certain β(3)-peptides can effectively mimic the side chain display of an α-helix and inhibit interactions between proteins, both in vitro and in cultured cells. Here we describe a β(3)-peptide analog of GLP-1, CC-3(Act), that interacts with the GLP-1R extracellular domain (nGLP-1R) in vitro in a manner that competes with exendin-4 and induces GLP-1R-dependent cAMP signaling in cultured CHO-K1 cells expressing GLP-1R.