14-3-3 Proteins in Normal and Tumour Cell Biology - Therapeutic Strategies in Cancer Biology and Pathology - page 95

phosphorylation of 14-3-3 and promote apoptosis (Woodcock et al., 2010). Among
other small molecule inhibitors are the natural extracts of the beetle Blaps japan-
ensis , which Yan et al. (2012) have claimed to inhibit 14-3-3 interaction with target
proteins. Arrendale et al. (2012) have designed a phosphoserine threonine mimetic
pro-drug with a non-hydrolysable difluoromethylenephosphoserine which displays
pronounced cytotoxic effects at very low concentration. They have shown that the
inhibitory effects directly involve 14-3-3 proteins. Most of these are preliminary
studies but should be deemed as suitable for further investigation. The strategy of
developing agents that promote or impede and disrupt 14-3-3 interaction as the case
may be with their target proteins is indeed a laudable one. It has been speculated that
there might be over a couple of hundred targets and so the chances of identifying
targets of value in terms of deploying 14-4-3 to modulate their phenotypic outcome
may not be unrealistic. One cannot gainsay that there is a long but profitable way of
beneficial exploration.