Signal‐Transduction Therapy: A Novel Approach to Disease Management

Alexander Levitzki*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

170 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the past decade it has become apparent that many diseases result from aberrations in signaling pathways. These include proliferative diseases such as cancers, atherosclerosis and psoriasis and inflammatory conditions such as sepsis, rheumatoid arthritis and tissue rejection. These findings refocused the research of the medical community to seek new modalities for disease management which essentially consist of designing drugs which intercept cell signaling. In this review, the emerging success in using tyrosine kinase blockers and other signal interceptors, such as protein kinase C blockers, Ras blockers, Ca2+ signaling inhibitors and estrogen antagonists which inhibit growth of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, will be discussed. These signal interceptors, especially tyrosine‐kinase blockers, are also able to block inflammatory responses and the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and psoriatic keratinocytes. The utility of signal interceptors in analyzing signal‐transduction pathways is also discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalEuropean Journal of Biochemistry
Volume226
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1994

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Signal‐Transduction Therapy: A Novel Approach to Disease Management'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this