Role of nerve growth factor signaling in cancer cell proliferation and survival using a reachability analysis approach

Abstract

Systems biology attempts to understand biological systems by their structure, dynamics, and control methods. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neuropeptide involved in cellular signaling that binds specific cell surface receptors in order to induce cellular proliferation and survival in different cell types or cell contexts. In this paper we perform a reachability analysis and we compute common elements in all possible solutions in our cases of interest with the help of Pathway Logic, which constitutes a rewriting logic formalism that provides a knowledge base and development environment to carry out model checking, searches, and executions of signaling systems. In conclusion, we provide a symbolic system that explores complex and dynamic cellular signaling processes that induce cellular proliferation and cellular survival.