Question

Describe how knowledge of signal transduction pathways has facilitated the generation therapeutic agents to treat particular diseases. 2 pages min please

Answer 1

Ans .Signal transduction pathways are used to convey messages of ligands into changes of biological activity of target cells . Aberrant signaling through communication pathways may result in diseases , and signal transduction pathways are increasingly the target for drug development.

Signal transduction is considered as the link between a ligand mediated activation of a receptor to the resultant cellular responses such as metabolism , gene expression, cell division and apoptosis, and motility /migration etc. Hence it is a vital route to explore for molecular-targeted therapies.

Many remarkably successful agents have been developed under this category, owing to the understanding of signal transduction pathways in cancer cells . Genetic and epigenetic changes that occurs in cancer cells lead to uncontrolled cellular functions (such as proliferation) in part through aberrant / modulated activity of various signaling and metabolic networks.

while normal cells have redundant overlapping pathways that allow for alternative signal transduction when one is inhibited, cancer cells have placed more emphasis on distinct signalling pathways owing to various mutations. As a result they have a diminished signaling network with hyper-active pathways to sustain cell proliferation and survival.

These hyper-activated pathways are reflected in the overexpression of certain proteins in cancer cells. Together, these characteristics make cancerous cells more sensitive to stress and mutagens. This forms the basis of signal transduction targeted molecular therapy. Therefore, theoretically depriving cancer cells from essential signaling elements neede for survival will lead to apoptosis and growth arrest.

Protein kinases have been implicated in cell proliferation and many have transforming capacity making them oncoproteins. Consequently protein kinases have been extensively studied as a signal transduction inhibitor pathway in targeted drug therapy.