BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

Toroids disable TORC

How triggering TORC1 aggregation could inhibit the kinase

November 30, 2017 9:11 PM UTC

A Nature study from a University of Geneva team has shown that the yeast homolog of mTORC1 forms large aggregates that block the complex’s catalytic site, highlighting an approach for specific inhibition of the complex that small molecule blockers have failed to accomplish.

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR; FRAP; RAFT1), a kinase that regulates cell growth and metabolism, is conserved between yeast and humans. Yeast have two TOR proteins, while humans have one mTOR that is part of two distinct complexes: mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and mTORC2. ...