Disclosed herein, inter alia, are compositions and methods for modulating the retinoic acid receptor signaling pathway and treating vision degeneration.

The present invention discloses a method of constructing a pharmacophore to determine whether a molecule is a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor full agonist, partial agonist or antagonist in terms of a binding energy or a free energy surface comprising: providing a protein receptor mimicking said peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor and a corresponding ligand; docking the corresponding ligand and the protein receptor to form a docked conformation; performing at least two rounds of molecular dynamic simulation to obtain at least one trajectory and at least one free energy surface; inputting the trajectory to construct at least one pharmacophore and obtaining the binding energy of the corresponding ligand; comparing the molecule with the corresponding ligand in terms of the binding energy thereof to the protein receptor in order to determine whether the molecule is the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor full agonist, partial agonist or antagonist.

The disclosure is directed to a G-protein coupled receptor complex. The complex includes (i) a chimeric G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) comprising a non-native amino acid sequence located within the C-terminus of the GPCR and a synthetic phosphopeptide ligated to the non-native amino acid sequence; and (ii) a -arrestin (arr) protein bound to the C-terminus of the GPCR. The disclosure also provides an in vitro method for producing the aforementioned complex, as well as methods for identifying compounds or ligands which bind to and modulate the activity of the complex. Positive allosteric modulators of the 2 adrenergic receptor identified by screening a DNA-encoded library potentiate the activity of 2 agonists and have application in the treatment of obstructive airway disease, bronchospasm, or pre-term labor.

The present invention provides for a system comprising (a) a first nucleic acid comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a nucleotide sequence of interest operatively linked to a promoter comprising a repressor polypeptide binding site, and (b) a second nucleic acid comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a repressor polypeptide having at least 70% amino acid identity with EilR, SmvR, KmrR, RcdA, or QacR; wherein expression of the nucleotide sequence of interest from the promoter is induced by the presence of a hydrophobic inducer, such as a hydrophobic cation inducer, such as a triarylmethane, acridine, phenazine, phenothiazine, or xanthene.

The present invention provides a model for high-throughput screening of endocrine disruptors and a method for screening the same. In the present invention, primary structural alerts, secondary structural alerts and tertiary structural alerts of compounds are extracted according to a nuclear receptor, and then the primary structural alerts, the secondary structural alerts and the tertiary structural alerts form a nuclear receptor high-throughput screening model; hierarchical structural alert matching is carried out on target compounds through the nuclear receptor high-throughput screening model, and ligand-receptor binding mode analysis and semi-quantitative prediction of binding activity and disrupting activity are performed. According to the present invention, the defect in prior art that potential nuclear receptor-mediated endocrine disruptors cannot be effectively screened in high throughput is overcome, high-throughput screening of potential nuclear receptor-mediated endocrine disruptors can be performed, and receptor competitive activity and A-Anta activity of the nuclear receptor-mediated endocrine disruptors can be determined.

Disclosed herein are methods of treating cancer by increasing mRNA m6A methylation level and/or decreasing mRNA m6A demethylation in cancer stem cells. The methods entail administering an effective amount of one or more therapeutic agents to the subject. The therapeutic agents include an agent that induces overexpression of METTL3, an agent that induces overexpression of METTL14, an agent that inhibits FTO, an agent that inhibits ALKBH5, and an agent that inhibits TLX. Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions for treating cancer, which compositions include one or more such therapeutic agents.

There is disclosed an assay method for selectively detecting 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D in a biological fluid sample. According to the method, the pH of the test sample is adjusted to 6-9 and a receptor protein comprising the Ligand Binding Domain of Vitamin D Receptor (VDR-LBD) is added to the test sample, thereby obtaining the formation of a VDR-LBD/1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D complex in which the VDR-LBD portion is conformationally changed with respect to unbound VDR-LBD. The VDR-LBD/1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D complex is then detected by means of a capture moiety which is capable of specifically binding to VDR-LBD bound to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Also disclosed are an assay kit and an antibody for carrying out the method. The assay is preferably a sandwich immunoassay.

The compositions described herein include an epitope of a peptide that may elicit an immune response in a subject following administration. The compositions may comprise nucleic acids. The compositions may comprise peptides. The methods described herein include administering a composition comprising an epitope of a peptide to a subject in need thereof.

The present invention is directed to the use of compounds which are modulators of the G protein-Coupled Estrogen Receptor (GPER) for the inhibition and/or treatment of Bacterial infections, especially including metMctHin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treatment of bacterial pathogens, including MRSA are also described.

Co-crystals comprising the Nuclear receptor related 1 protein-ligand binding domain (Nurr1-LBD) and a cyclopentenone prostaglandin are provided. Also provided are methods of identifying or designing Nurr1-modulating ligands and compounds based on the crystal structures described herein as well as the applications of said ligands and compounds as Nurr1 modulators or medicaments.