Dopamine Beta Hydroxylase: An Enzyme with Therapeutic Potential to Combat Neural and Cardiovascular Diseases

The brain and the heart are arguably the two most important organs of the human body. It is thus no surprise that diseases of the brain and heart are of the highest concern and are the major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. A physiological process that is common to both of these major organs is the catecholamine biosynthetic pathway, where the products of the pathway regulate several major events in the human body. The changes in the levels of catecholamines are originators of several neural and cardiovascular diseases. Dopamine beta hydroxylase (DBH), an enzyme that plays a central and critical role in the catecholamine biosynthetic pathway, regulates the concentrations of dopamine and norepinephrine, whose deficiency or overproduction causes several diseases related to the brain and the heart. This enzyme is thus of great therapeutic significance. Insight into the genetics, structure, function, and dynamics of the protein will provide scope for discovery and design of potential small molecule drugs to treat neurological or cardiovascular disorders utilizing structure-based, rational drug discovery approaches.