Delay Mechanism Involving a Drug Target Candidate G Protein Coupled Receptors in Signal Pathways

摘要

G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) constitute the largest family of cell membrane receptors which are subject to being targeted by an estimated 50% of current Pharmaceuticals. Thus, better understanding of GPCRs and the signal transduction pathways they initiate will lead to new drug targets. Signal transduction is the process by which a cell recognizes and extracellular signal and converts that signal into an intracellular response. Subjected to transient stimuli, biological systems can exhibit early responses and/or late responses. In this study, we use mathematical modelling and analysis to study dynamical mechanisms of biological memory and delayed response to external stimuli. A delay model of signaling pathways involving G-proteins is analyzed to show that the model admits positive solutions and is uniformly persistent. Further, it is found that the delays τ_1t in response to inhibition and τ_R in G protein mediated response to external stimuli of the receptors do not appear to impact on the persistent characteristics of this system.