Is there a future for mechano-pharmaceuticals?

Life is happening far away from equilibrium and all life forms are getting exposed to mechanical forces and physical factors that can affect cell decision making. In the last two decades, much progress has been made through access to a large set of nanotechnology and computational tools in the molecular understanding of how mechanical forces can switch the structure-function relationships of proteins. Protein stretching is thus exploited by cells to sense physical properties of their environments, which ultimately tune gene transcription and subsequently cell decision making. While the field of mechanobiology has risen rapidly, how to translate that knowledge towards the clinics is still challenging in part due to the lack of nanoscale sensors to probe forces or tissue fiber tension in healthy versus diseased organs. Recent approaches to specifically sense and target not just a protein of interest, but its physical state too, will be discussed.