Analysis of Cancer Invasion Mechanism by Cellular Simulation

Abstract

Various proteases are participating in cancer invasion. To elucidate the role of these proteases, we developed a model of cancer invasion mechanism by using cellular simulator E-CELL. The invasion characteristic for five kinds of cancer cells was investigated to obtain the comparable results to the experimental. The involvement of urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) in the pathology of human cancers is well documented. The simulated results elucidated that the binding of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) to uPAR existing on a cancer cell membrane is important for the cancer invasion. Therefore, these data allow us to speculate that the blocking of the uPA/uPAR binding is effective for the inhibition of cancer invasion.