title: Autotaxin inhibitors: a patent review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Autotaxin (ATX) is a lysophospholipase D enzyme that hydrolyzes lysophosphatidylcholine to lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and choline. LPA is a bioactive lipid mediator that activates several transduction pathways, and is involved in migration, proliferation and survival of various cells. Thus, ATX is an attractive medicinal target.
  
  
  METHODS
  The aim of this review is to summarize ATX inhibitors, reported in patents from 2006 up to now, describing their discovery and biological evaluation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ATX has been implicated in various pathological conditions, such as cancer, chronic inflammation, neuropathic pain, fibrotic diseases, etc. Although there is an intensive effort on the discovery of potent and selective ATX inhibitors in order to identify novel medicinal agents, up to now, no ATX inhibitor has reached clinical trials. However, the use of ATX inhibitors seems an attractive strategy for the development of novel medicinal agents, for example anticancer therapeutics.
authors: University of Athens, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Panepistimiopolis, Athens 15771, Greece.
authors: Efrosini
authors: E
authors: Barbayianni
authors: Victoria
authors: V
authors: Magrioti
authors: Panagiota
authors: P
authors: Moutevelis-Minakakis
authors: George
authors: G
authors: Kokotos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D010330:Patents as Topic; D010726:Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010727:Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D000099189:Lysophospholipase D
chemical_list: D010726:Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors; D010727:Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases; D000099189:Lysophospholipase D