state of the art in silico tools for the study of signaling pathways in cancer先进的计算机工具在癌症研究信号通路.pdf

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13, 6561-6581; doi:10.3390/ijm OPEN ACCESS International Journal of Molecular Sciences ISSN 1422-0067 /journal/ijms Review State of the Art in Silico Tools for the Study of Signaling Pathways in Cancer Vanessa Medina Villaamil 1,*, Guadalupe Aparicio Gallego 1, Isabel Santamarina Cainzos 1, Manuel Valladares-Ayerbes 1,3 and Luis M. Antón Aparicio 2,3 1 Biomedical Research Institute (INIBIC), CHU A Coruña, Xubias de Abaixo s/n, PC 15006, A Coruña, Spain; E-Mails: lupe.aparicio@ (G.A.G.); Isabel.santamarina.cainzos@sergas.es (I.S.C.); manuel.valladares.ayerbes@sergas.es (M.V.-A.) 2 University of A Coruña (UDC), PC 15006, A Coruña, Spain; E-Mail: Luis.M.Anton.Aparicio@sergas.es 3 Medical Oncology Department, CHU A Coruña, PC 15006, A Coruña, Spain * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: Vanessa.medina.villaamil@sergas.es; Tel.: +34-981-178-272; Fax: +34-981-178-273. Received: 2 7 March 2012; in revised form: 3 May 2012 / Accepted: 10 May 2012 / Published: 29 May 2012 Abstract: In the last several years, researchers have exhibited an intense interest in the evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways that have crucial roles during embryonic development. Interestingly, the malfunctioning of these signaling pathways leads to several human diseases, including cancer. The chemical and biophysical events that occur during cellular signaling, as well as the number of interactions within a signal