Lights, Camera, Action in the Membrane

Courtesy of AfCS-Nature Signaling Gateway (www.signaling-gateway.org)  A WORK IN PROGRESS Complex as it is, this cell signaling map isn't finished. But since every interaction shown is a potential point for therapeutic intervention, understanding the wiring of these messaging systems could deliver new drugs to the clinic. Signal transduction wasn't exactly the first thing that came to mind when my mother told me that she had medullary thyroid cancer. Thoughts of not having my mother aroun

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Signal transduction wasn't exactly the first thing that came to mind when my mother told me that she had medullary thyroid cancer. Thoughts of not having my mother around when I finally got married or had my first baby were more immediate. Now that she's in remission, I've had the chance to marvel at how a mutation in a receptor known as c-Ret could cause the calcitonin-producing C cells of the thyroid to proliferate uncontrollably.1

Known as a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), membrane-bound c-Ret is the first player in one of the many signal transduction pathways of the C cells. In response to ligand binding, RTKs--such as the receptors for insulin, platelet-derived growth factor, and epidermal growth factor-- phosphorylate either themselves or nearby proteins to initiate a signaling cascade.2

Researchers now know that many diseases beyond cancer, including diabetes, heart disease, and asthma, ultimately stem from messaging systems gone awry. ...

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  • Laura Lane

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