Network instabilities and cancer

15 Oct 2010

Baltazar Aguda
Neuro-Oncology Branch
National Cancer Institute, NIH

Abstract

I would like to share the story of how our group used qualitative network analysis (qNET) to home in on the essential feedback loops in the G1-S transition of the mammalian cell cycle for generating the switching behavior associated with the Restriction Point. This important cell cycle checkpoint is dysregulated in many human cancers. The qNET analysis focuses on the topology of the interaction network and the identification of destabilizing cycles that potentially cause instability and switching dynamics. The regulation of the R point by microRNAs and its coordination with apoptosis will also be briefly discussed in relation to qNET analysis.

References

1. B D Aguda, A B Goryachev, "From pathways databases to network models of switching behavior", PLoS Comp Biol 3:1674-8N 2007. PubMed
2. B D Aguda, Y Kim, M G Piper-Hunter, A Friedman, C B Marsh, "MicroRNA regulation of a cancer network: consequences of the feedback loops involving miR-17-92, E2F, and Myc", PNAS 105:19678-83 2008. PubMed
3. B D Aguda, C K Algar, "A structural analysis of the qualitative networks regulating the cell cycle and apoptosis", Cell Cycle 2:538-44B 2003. PubMed