Structural Imaging at ALS Yields New Insights into DNA Repair Enzyme
PARP1 is an enzyme that senses DNA damage and sends a cellular signal to carry out repair. It has been found to be upregulated in several carcinomas and inhibiting its activity has been shown to repress tumor growth and metastasis. PARP1 has also emerged as a promising therapeutic target for Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, where attenuating the enzyme’s hyperactivity can help cells survive. To better understand the regions of PARP1 that various inhibitors attack, an international team of researchers captured the first snapshot of the enzyme in the active state it adopts after detecting DNA damage.
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