Cellular pathways and their molecular components 1200-2EN-CPMCER

The lecture introduces basic information about biological processes occurring inside the cell, with particular emphasis on signaling pathways. Most importantly, the process of transmitting the signal from the stimulus, through primary transmitters and first-order effectors, to the observed cellular response will be described. In addition to the signaling pathways of GPCRs and nuclear receptors, the mTOR kinase signaling pathway will be presented. Among metabolic pathways, cellular respiration together with related pathways, e.g. porphyrins, will be described and explained. The last part of the lecture will discuss gene regulatory networks, especially those related to carcinogenesis and cell apoptosis. Among the transcription factors, the p53 protein and its role in tumor suppression will be presented. In addition to the description of main stages in biological pathways also molecular components will be described. Among others, it will be presented how structural changes of a given molecular component, e.g., a protein or a protein - nucleic acid complex, affect the whole cellular pathway, and how to induce such changes through active pharmaceutical ingredients.