Proliferative Signaling Analysis

Proliferative signaling within the tumor microenvironment (TME) is a critical factor in tumor growth and progression. At Alfa Cytology, we specialize in analyzing the proliferative signaling pathways within the TME) providing invaluable insights that drive the development of innovative cancer therapies.

Introduction

It has been shown that cell proliferation is regulated by a number of cellular signaling pathways, such as PI3K-AKT signaling, GPCR signaling, MAPK signaling, Ras signaling. The most important of these is the growth factor signaling pathway, which first moves from the extracellular to the cell membrane to the intracellular and then to the nucleus. Normally, cellular transduction is normal. However, if it is in a tumour, some abnormality occurs (in TME), as tumours arise from excessive cell proliferation. One of the abnormalities that occur in tumours is the membrane receptor, which activates in the absence of many growth factors outside the cell, so that it becomes over-activated and continuously activated, which is one of the reasons why tumours are able to proliferate indefinitely. Because the membrane receptor is on the membrane, it can be reached by drugs administered from outside. Whereas other abnormalities occur in the cell, drugs come in more complex. Some anti-cancer drugs are an antibody that targets the membrane receptor, blocking the signalling pathway at its source so that this pathway cannot be activated, thus inhibiting the proliferation of the tumour. Such drugs are typical of the targeted drugs developed by studying cell proliferation signalling.

Our Services

In the case of tumour cells, the tumour demonstrates its complexity by proliferating. It builds the tumour microenvironment by proliferating to help form the underlying features of the tumour. Enhanced knowledge of the cellular signalling pathways of tumour proliferation will better enable us to develop new anti-tumour tools in the fight against tumours. Alfa Cytology has established an innovative technology platform for tumor microenvironment centers and is developing multiple technologies to provide high quality solutions and services to our global collaborators. In-depth studies of proliferation signalling in the tumor microenvironment (TME), we expect to identify new targets and develop new approaches for combination therapy and reduction of side effects.

Key Technologies

Transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic histologies have been widely used in the study of tumour cell signalling pathways. Of high relevance to cell proliferation signalling in cancer is epigenomics, which characterises the accumulation of signalling kinases etc. present in the system.

Tumour cell lines are cultured and knockdown / overexpression of genes allows for validation of cell proliferation pathways. Alternatively subcutaneous tumour formation assays in nude mice, tumour weight determination, gene expression assays and immunohistochemistry are performed to further investigate the molecular mechanisms of tumour value-added signalling.

The detection of cell proliferation is a necessary process to explore the ultimate cell proliferation signal transduction and can be used as a prognostic and diagnostic tool for various cancers. Markers of cell proliferation are usually DNA synthesis, cell metabolism or proliferation-specific proteins. For example, DNA synthesis is typically detected with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU); cell proliferation is detected with a combination of multicolor flow cytometry and proliferation dyes; the percentage of positive Ki-67 cells (used as an indicator of cell proliferation) assess the extent of proliferating cells.

Alfa Cytology is committed to supporting scientists in making breakthrough scientific discoveries and developing new applications to accelerate new drug discovery and scientific diagnosis and treatment. Our high-performance scientific instruments and high-value solutions enable scientists to explore the mysteries of life at the tumor microenvironment level. Please tell us your project requirements, and we will provide you with a full service from solution to report. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

For research use only.