Nature: a novel therapeutic strategy in fungal infectious disease

Eukaryotic transcription activators stimulate the expression of specific sets of target genes through recruitment of co-activators such as the RNA polymerase II-interacting Mediator complex. Aberrant function of transcription activators has been implicated in several diseases. However, therapeutic targeting efforts have been hampered by a lack of detailed molecular knowledge of the mechanisms of gene activation by disease-associated transcription activators. 

Recently, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center researcher Nishikawa found that by destroying the activator-mediator interaction can inhibit fungal multidrug resistance. The team has demonstrated that targeting small molecules of the transcription factor binding site of mediators can serve as a novel therapeutic strategy for fungal infectious diseases, the results of which are published in the latest issue of the journal Nature. （Nishikawa JL, Boeszoermenyi A, Vale-Silva LA, et al. Nature. 2016 Feb 25;530(7591):485-9. doi: 10.1038/nature16963.）