{"id":244858,"date":"2026-10-03T01:45:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T06:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/computer-designed-protein-targets-immune-receptor-linked-to-inflammation-at-new-undruggable-site"},"modified":"2026-10-03T01:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T06:45:26","slug":"computer-designed-protein-targets-immune-receptor-linked-to-inflammation-at-new-undruggable-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/computer-designed-protein-targets-immune-receptor-linked-to-inflammation-at-new-undruggable-site","title":{"rendered":"Computer-designed protein targets immune receptor linked to inflammation at new \u2018undruggable\u2019 site"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/computer-designed-protein-targets-immune-receptor-linked-to-inflammation-at-new-undruggable-site2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To sense their environment and respond accordingly, cells enlist membrane proteins as communication hubs, receiving molecular messages from outside and triggering responses inside. One of these proteins is Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), an immune receptor that plays an essential role in protecting against infections. But overactivity of TLR4 has been linked to inflammatory disorders like sepsis, arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, making it an attractive target for therapies. Despite its appeal, TLR4 is difficult to manipulate precisely, and no FDA-approved drugs specifically block it.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2536559123\" target=\"_blank\"><i>PNAS<\/i><\/a> study, scientists at Scripps Research engineered a small synthetic protein that can bind to TLR4 within cell membranes and block subsequent inflammatory responses.<\/p>\n<p>The findings advance understanding of what TLR4\u2019s membrane-embedded region does. Rather than a passive anchor, it\u2019s an active determinant of cross-membrane signaling\u2014mechanistic insight that could guide the design of a new class of anti-inflammatory treatments. More broadly, the study outlines new computational tools that other researchers can use to target proteins within membranes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To sense their environment and respond accordingly, cells enlist membrane proteins as communication hubs, receiving molecular messages from outside and triggering responses inside. One of these proteins is Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), an immune receptor that plays an essential role in protecting against infections. But overactivity of TLR4 has been linked to inflammatory disorders like [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}