The cell cycle and drug discovery: the promise and the hope

In recent years, there have been major developments in the understanding of the cell cycle. It is now known that normal cellular proliferation is tigh tly regulated by the activation and deactivation of a series of proteins th at constitute the cell cycle machinery. The expression and activity of comp onents of the cell cycle can be altered during the development of a variety of diseases where aberrant proliferation contributes to the pathology of t he illness. Apart from yielding a new source of untapped therapeutic target s, it is likely that manipulating the activity of such proteins in diseased states will provide an important route for treating proliferative disorder s, and the opportunity to develop a novel class of future medicines.