Usage of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Small Molecule Inhibitors: More Than Just Inhibition!

Steffen K Meurer; Ralf Weiskirchen

doi:10.3389/fphar.2018.00098

Usage of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Small Molecule Inhibitors: More Than Just Inhibition!

Front Pharmacol. 2018 Feb 12:9:98. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2018.00098. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Steffen K Meurer¹, Ralf Weiskirchen¹

Affiliation

¹ Institute of Molecular Pathobiochemistry, Experimental Gene, and Clinical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.

Abstract

We have identified a phenomenon occurring in the usage of proposed "specific" Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitors. We found that especially inhibitors of p38 potentiate the activation of other MAPKs in various cell types. This finding will have tremendous impact on the interpretation of all former studies using MAPK inhibitors.

Keywords: PD98059; PDGF-BB; SB203580; SP600125; UO126; inhibitors; mitogen-activated protein kinases; signal transduction.