A Systems Biology Roadmap to Decode mTOR Control System in Cancer

Abstract

Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a critical protein in the regulation of cell fate decision making, especially in cancer cells. mTOR acts as a signal integrator and is one of the main elements of interactions among the pivotal cellular processes such as cell death, autophagy, metabolic reprogramming, cell growth, and cell cycle. The temporal control of these processes is essential for the cellular homeostasis and dysregulation of mTOR signaling pathway results in different phenotypes, including aging, oncogenesis, cell survival, cell growth, senescence, quiescence, and cell death. In this paper, we have proposed a systems biology roadmap to study mTOR control system, which introduces the theoretical and experimental modalities to decode temporal and dynamical characteristics of mTOR signaling in cancer.

Keywords: Aging; Bistability; Cancer; Cell fate; Dynamic modeling; Mathematical models; Oscillations; Signaling network; Systems biology; mTOR.