Signal Transduction

The term "Signal transduction" encompasses all the pathways, sensing processes and the biological molecules that are involved in relaying information from the outside of a cell to the nucleus and eliciting adaptive responses such that the cell can react appropriately to environmental cues (growth factors, hormones, neurotransmitters, inflammatory cytokines, bacterial/viral attacks, nutrient deprivation, osmotic changes etc). The molecular circuitry of signal transduction cascades have three fundamental elements starting with -

1. Cell surface receptors (typically integral membrane proteins with extra-cellular and intracellular domains) which receive information from the outside, followed by
2. Intra-cellular second messenger molecules (typically small molecules which can diffuse through the cell like cAMP, cGMP, Inositol Phosphate, Calcium, Nitric Oxide, Diacylglycerol and whose concentration can be regulated quickly) which sense the activation of the receptor and amplify the signal (most commonly by phosphorylation or activation of a protein kinase) ultimately culminating in recruitment of
3. Specific effector molecules (transcription factors) which trigger the desired cellular responses such as changes in enzyme activity, gene expression, or ion-channel opening/closing needed for cell survival.

The astounding statistic that approximately half of the 25 largest protein families encoded by the human genome are primarily involved in information processing underscores the fact that nearly every function of a living cell/organism is driven by signal transduction. No wonder then that modern-day drug discovery efforts are founded on the fundamental idea that manipulation of proteins involved in key cellular signaling cascades will have the potential to prevent and treat some of the major human diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, developmental abnormalities, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, Diabetes, Obesity, Aging, Inflammation, Immunodeficiency and the list goes on. BioVision is proud to offer a comprehensive ensemble of products focusing on all aspects of the signal-transduction process in mammalian cells: assay kits to test the activity of various proteins participating in a wide array of signal transduction events, antibodies, second messenger molecules and protein kinases.