GSK Inhibitors
Glycogen Synthase Kinases (GSKs) are a heterogenous class of protein-serine-threonine kinases that phosphorylate the enzyme Glycogen Synthase and regulate its activity. These enzymes do not only phosphorylate Glycogen Synthase, but are known to add phospho- groups on >40 different substrates and thereby regulate a large ensemble of cellular signaling pathways. Phosphorylation by GSK enzymes usually leads to suppression of activity of the target substrate. The members of this family are: GSK-1, 2 and 3. In mammals, GSK-3 is encoded by two genes: GSK3-α (GSK3A) and GSK3-β (GSK3B). These enzymes have widespread effects on cellular metabolism, energy utilization, cell motility, growth and cell fate including apoptosis. Due to such pleiotropic effects of GSK enzymes in general and particularly GSK-3 in human diseases, a large number of inhibitors (>30) of GSK-3 are being tested for their potential therapeutic effects in Alzheimer's disease and other neurological pathologies (Bipolar Disorder), Type II diabetes, several forms of cancer, chronic inflammation etc. BioVision offers an assortment of GSK inhibitors that can help understand the role of these enzymes in various cellular functions and hopefully identifying methods capable of alleviating the deleterious impact of aberrant GSK3-mediated signaling in pathological conditions.
