Understanding the PI3K/AKT Anti-Apoptotic Signalling Pathway: a Tuple Space-Based Computational Framework for Simulating the Signal Transduction

The PI3K/AKT pathway is one of the main processes involved in cancer development since it primarily controls cellular proliferation and apoptosis. Understanding its behaviour and how it interacts with other pathways or how it is influenced by the presence of specific molecules, is a crucial task in cancer therapy. In this paper we propose a model developed according to the abstractions provided by the Biochemical Tuple Spaces for Self-Organising Coordination framework and simulated on top of TuCSoN. The model and simulation procedure is fully described, demonstrating how much flexible and robust the computational framework is. Simulation results show critical points in the overall cascade, where activations or inhibitions can change the fate of the cell, turning it into apoptosis or proliferation.