Mechanosignaling in Physiology and Disease
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2024 | Viewed by 612
Special Issue Editors
Interests: signal transduction; mechanobiology; tumorigenesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: molecular medicine; cancer mechanobiology; regulation of gene expression; transcription factors in health and disease; epigenetics; signal transduction; mechanotransduction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
An ever-increasing body of evidence is providing new insights into the effect of mechanical stimulation on the extracellular matrix (ECM) and corresponding mechanotransduction in normal cells, cancer cells, and surrounding stromal cells. Among other mechanisms, distorted mechanosignaling has been associated with various maladies, including polycystic kidney disease, bone tissue abnormalities, thoracic pathologies, and tumor progression, invasion, and metastasis. Genetic mutations and other factors, such as tissue injury, chronic inflammation, and accumulated mechanical stress, reprogram and activate differentiating regulatory circuits that are normally silent in adults. These mechanisms are mediated through core proteins of the adhesive complex, mainly via integrin/focal adhesion kinase (FAK)/Src signaling, which promote cytoskeletal remodeling and the development of increased intracellular tension, thereby generating positive-feedback loops and a vicious cycle between the ECM and the cytoskeleton. The final effectors of these events are mechano-induced transcriptional co-activators and transcription factors such as those of the Hippo signaling cascade, namely the Yes-associated protein (YAP)/transcriptional coactivator with a PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) and members of the transcriptional enhanced associate domain (TEAD) transcription factor family. The emerging impact of mechanosignaling on physiologic and pathologic processes offers new potential targeting options, thus creating a new field, termed mechanopharmacology/mechanomedicine, aiming to therapeutically exploit the physical associations of normal cells with their microenvironment.
Dr. Antonios N. Gargalionis
Prof. Dr. Athanasios G. Papavassiliou
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- mechanobiology
- cancer mechanobiology
- mechanotransduction
- biomechanics
- mechanosignaling
- extracellular matrix
- cell adhesion
- YAP
- TAZ
