23/07/2025
🖼️ IOCB Cover
🦠 Our cells have their own "cleaning system" – lysosomes, which break down unnecessary or harmful substances. To do their job, they must receive the right enzymes at the right place. A key player in this process is the IGF2 receptor, which acts like a cellular "navigator."
In a new paper from the team led by Lenka Žáková, Jakub Kaminský a Kamil Parkan with Lucie Mrázková as first author, researchers designed and synthesized novel stable molecules that bind to this receptor even more strongly than conventional substances. Using a smart fluorescent method, they quickly measured the binding efficiency – and the results are clear: the more M6P tags a molecule carries, the better it's recognized and bound by the receptor.
Even more promisingly, the team discovered variants that are more stable and potentially more effective than their natural counterparts.
These findings could pave the way for therapies that deliver drugs precisely to lysosomes – right where they’re needed most.
🎨 Cover art by Tomáš Belloň / IOCB Prague
📜 Read the paper ►
Mrázková, L.; Hladoníková, K.; Toncarová, B.; Fischer, M.; Zýka, J.; Kozák, J.; Kráľ, M.; Kožíšek, M.; Jiráček, J.; Kaminský, J.; Parkan, K.; Žáková, L.
Design of Potent Mannose-6-Phosphate Derivatives as Ligands for CI-M6P/IGF2R Using Fluorescence Polarization Assay.
Chem. Eur. J. 2025, 31 (41), e202500973.
DOI: 10.1002/chem.202500973
