Mechanisms of Ligand-Receptor Interaction in Normal and Tumor Cells

Research Team:  Band, Budunova, Bulun, Chakravarti, Clevenger, Freymann, Jameson, Kim, Linzer, Lupu, Mayo, Rodriguez, Rosen, Woodruff

Hormones and growth factors act as key extracellular regulators of basic cell biological processes such as proliferation, survival, apoptosis, differentiation and migration. Control of these processes is essential for normal development and maintenance of tissue homeostasis. Hormones exert their effects by interacting with specific receptor proteins and receptor binding is the first step in the molecular cascade of events leading to biological actions. It is also clear now that aberrant cellular activation by altered expression or activity of receptors or their ligands is a frequent oncogenic strategy. Hormone-receptor interactions that are associated with human cancers are under intense investigation by members of the HAST Program. Interactions of peptide hormones with cell surface receptors (Band, Clevenger, Lupu, Mayo, Woodruff,) and steroid hormones with nuclear and non-nuclear receptors (Budunova, Bulun, Chakravarti, Jameson, Kim, Rodriguez, Rosen) are being investigated with a focus on elucidating the mechanisms by which ligands and their receptors interact to potentiate disease states. Better definition of the role of ligand-receptor interactions and subsequent participation of coregulatory proteins in the oncogenic process also validates these for targeted anticancer therapies, another area of pursuit by the group. In addition, better definition of the role of ligand-receptor interactions in tumor progression is also being pursued in the context of chemoprevention (Bulun, Budunova, Kim, Rodriguez).

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