New chemical target for inflammation treatment

Researchers from The Scripps Research Institute recently conducted a study in which they discovered new chemical compounds that inhibit an enzyme called PRMT1 (protein arginine methyltransferase 1) which is associated with inflammatory conditions like asthma and arthritis, and inflammation-promoted cancers. This discovery will be useful in the study of PRMT1-related biological pathways in cells and development of drug treatments for PRMT1-related inflammatory conditions and cancers. In the study, the researchers devised the first PRMT1-specific screening technique which targets a screening probe to the hyper-reactive cysteine amino acid in PRMT1. Researchers were able to verify that the non-specific inhibitors tested bind to PRMT1 and prevented the probe from binding.