Growth factor signaling: implications for disease & therapeutics.

Cells possess complex growth factor networks that play vital roles in regulating fundamental life processes. Such protein factors exert their action by binding to cognate cell specific receptors resulting in regulation of cell division, differentiation, chemotaxis or apoptosis. Engagement of receptors by their respective ligands results in activation of sequential protein phosphorylation cascades, culminating downstream into activation of gene transcription. These factors are expressed ubiquitously under a variety of conditions by normal as well as transformed cells, thereby underpinning their function in autocrine and paracrine stimulation of cells under several physiological and pathological conditions. Despite major advances in our understanding of growth factors, their paradoxical roles in normal cellular homeostasis and pathologies underpin the need to examine their roles in disease and health. The goal of this special issue is to present emerging trends in the roles that growth factors play in inflammatory disease processes that include cardiovascular, cancer, stroke and neurodegenerative processes associated with aging, viral infection and substance abuse with the ultimate aim to pave the way for future therapeutic breakthroughs.