25 Years of Collaboration with A Genius: Deciphering Adenine Nucleotide Ca(2+) Mobilizing Second Messengers Together with Professor Barry Potter

Ca(2+)-mobilizing adenine nucleotide second messengers cyclic adenosine diphosphoribose, (cADPR), nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP), adenosine diphosphoribose (ADPR), and 2′deoxy-ADPR were discovered since the late 1980s. They either release Ca(2+) from endogenous Ca(2+) stores, e.g., endoplasmic reticulum or acidic organelles, or evoke Ca(2+) entry by directly activating a Ca(2+) channel in the plasma membrane. For 25 years, Professor Barry Potter has been one of the major medicinal chemists in this topical area, designing and contributing numerous analogues to develop structure–activity relationships (SAR) as a basis for tool development in biochemistry and cell biology and for lead development in proof-of-concept studies in disease models. With this review, I wish to acknowledge our 25-year-long collaboration on Ca(2+)-mobilizing adenine nucleotide second messengers as a major part of Professor Potter’s scientific lifetime achievements on the occasion of his retirement in 2020.