标题:
表皮生长因子受体的结构与计算生物学研究进展Progress in Structural and Computational Studies of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor
作者:
张泳辉, 张志勇
关键字:
表皮生长因子受体, 结构与功能, 计算机模拟, 分子动力学模拟, 构象变化Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR); Structure and Function; Computer Modeling; Molecular Dynamics Simulations; Conformational Changes
期刊名称:
《Biophysics》, Vol.1 No.1, 2013-05-24
摘要:
表皮生长因子受体(epidermal growth factor receptor: EGFR)在细胞信号转导中发挥了重要作用，调节细胞的增殖、分化与迁移。EGFR与多种癌症密切相关，这使其成为一个理想的抗肿瘤药物靶点。本文对EGFR的结构生物学及计算生物学的研究进展做一综述。通过结构生物学家的不懈努力，已经对EGFR的三维空间结构有了较为清晰的认识。计算机模拟是研究生物大分子动态过程的重要手段之一，可以在EGFR静态结构的基础上，模拟其在配体诱导的激活过程中发生的大尺度、长时程的动态构象变化。对EGFR的结构及其分子内部运动的研究，有助于揭示其发挥生物学功能的分子机理，为抗肿瘤药物的设计开发提供指导。
Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays a critical role in the network of signal transduction, and regulates cell proliferation, differentiation, and migration. EGFR is implicated in different kinds of cancers, which makes it an excellent target for anti-tumor therapy. This review considers structural and computational studies of EGFR, and their impact on our understanding of EGFR function. With continuing efforts of biologists, many high-resolution structures of different regions in EGFR, which include the extracellular region and the intracellular tyrosine kinase do-main, have been solved. Starting from these structures, computer simulation techniques enable us to investigate large length-scale and long time-scale conformational changes during the EGFR activation. All the studies will be helpful to reveal the molecular mechanism in EGFR regulation, and provide valuable knowledge for developing anti-cancer drugs.