Conference on Proteolytic Enzymes as Therapeutic Targets

以蛋白水解酶为治疗靶点的Keystone会议旨在围绕涉及疾病的蛋白酶的基础科学与开发将抑制或影响其活性的药物的方法之间建立一座桥梁。这次会议是多学科的，因为将讨论几种机制集合中的蛋白水解酶与癌症、心血管和中枢神经系统疾病、代谢紊乱和传染病的关系。特别及时的将是关于新发现的与阿尔茨海默氏病的Abeta肽的释放有关的蛋白酶，以及作为药物在AD中开发这些酶的抑制剂。另一类蛋白酶，半胱氨酸天冬氨酸酶，也将与治疗心肌梗死和其他疾病的药物相关，在这些疾病中，细胞凋亡是一个关键因素。与任何药物一样，人们仍然对作为治疗剂的蛋白酶抑制剂的安全性和有效性感到担忧。本论坛将提供发表不同意见的机会。大会的演讲者平均分配给学术科学家和工业科学家，每一次会议都将包括对从海报投稿中挑选出来的一名年轻科学家的特别邀请。这些人中的许多人缺乏对旅行的支持，所要求的资金将在使他们能够参加会议方面发挥重要作用。通读会议提纲将充分显示妇女在主席和发言者中的参与；的确，妇女为我们理解这些蛋白水解酶目标作出了根本贡献。基因组学时代带来了治疗疾病的全新靶点和独特的治疗途径。蛋白水解酶已被证明参与几乎所有的生理过程，并已成为这个新的靶标集合的重要成员。血管紧张素转换酶抑制剂和那些针对艾滋病毒蛋白酶的药物是成功将基础科学转化为对人类健康产生巨大影响的药物的绝佳检验。我们预计，根据本次会议将讨论的研究，未来也会取得类似的成功。

The Keystone Conference on Proteolytic Enzymes as Therapeutic Targets is designed to provide a bridge between the basic sciences surrounding proteinases involved in disease, and approaches to the development of drugs that will inhibit or influence their activities. The meeting is multi-disciplinary in that proteinases from several mechanistic sets will be discussed relative to their involvement in cancer, diseases of the cardiovascular and central nervous systems, metabolic disorders, and infectious diseases. Especially timely will be presentations concerning the newly discovered proteinases responsible for liberation of the Abeta peptide of Alzheimer's Disease and development of inhibitors of these enzymes as drugs in AD. Another class of proteinases, the caspases, will also be reviewed relative to drugs for treatment of MI and other diseases, where apoptosis is a crucial factor. As is the case for any drugs, there remain concerns about safety and efficacy of proteinase inhibitors as therapeutic agents The opportunity for airing of various opinions will be provided in this forum. Speakers at the conference are evenly divided between academic and industrial scientists, and each session will include a special invitation to a young scientist selected from among the poster submissions. Many of these individuals lack support for travel and the funds requested would serve a vital function in enabling them to attend. A perusal of the conference outline will amply demonstrate the involvement of women among chairpersons and speakers; indeed, women have made fundamental contributions to our understanding of these proteinase targets. The genomics era has ushered in a whole new spectrum of targets and unique therapeutic avenues for treatment of disease. Proteinases have been shown to be involved in almost every physiological process and have been prominent members of this new target assembly. The ACE inhibitors and those against the HIV- proteinase stand as excellent examines of success in translating basic science to drugs that have made an enormous impact on human health. We expect similar success in the future based upon the research to be discussed at this conference.