Cooperation is the key: the CCN biological system as a gate to high complex protein superfamilies’ signaling

Abstract

Cellular signaling is generally understood as the support of communication between contiguous cells belonging to the same tissue or cells being far apart of each other, at a molecular scale, when the message emitted by the transmitters is traveling in liquid or solid matter to reach recipient targets. Subcellular signaling is also important to ensure the proper cell constitution and functioning. However cell signaling is mostly used in the first understanding, to describe how the message sent from one point to another one, will reach a target where it will be interpreted. The Cellular Communication Network (CCN) factors (Perbal et al. 2018) constitute a family of biological regulators thought to be responsible for signaling pathways coordination (Perbal 2018). Indeed, these proteins interact with a diverse group of cell receptors, such as integrins, low density lipoprotein receptors, heparan sulfate proteoglycan receptors (HSPG), and the immunoglobulin superfamily expressed exclusively in the nervous system, or with soluble factors such as bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPS) and other growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblastic growth factor, and transforming growth factor (TGFbeta). Starting from the recapitulation of basic concepts in enzymology and protein-ligands interactions, we consider, in this manuscript, interpretations of the mechanistic interactions that have been put forward to explain the diversity of CCN proteins biological activities. We suggest that the cross-talks between superfamilies of proteins under the control of CCNs might play a central role in the coordination of developmental signaling pathways