Disruption of protein function by pathogenic mutations: common and uncommon mechanisms.

Mutations in protein coding regions underlie almost all Mendelian disorders, drive tumorigenesis, and contribute to susceptibility to common diseases. Despite the great diversity of diseases that are caused by coding mutations, the cellular processes that affect â and are affected by â pathogenic variants at the molecular level are fundamentally conserved. Experimental and computational approaches have revealed that a substantial fraction of disease mutations are not simple loss-of-function alleles. Rather, these pathogenic variants disrupt protein function in more subtle ways by tuning protein folding pathways, altering subcellular trafficking, interrupting signaling cascades, and rewiring highly connected interaction networks. Focusing mainly on Mendelian disorders, this review discusses the common mechanisms by which deleterious mutations disrupt protein function and how these disruptions can be exploited in the development of novel therapies.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author