Targeting transcription factors in cell regulation

The author compares transcription factors (TFs) with 13 other protein classes from the point of their ability to regulate various cellular processes. The comparison is performed using data from the ResNet 4.0 database containing molecular interactions extracted from scientific literature. The author introduces two quantitative characteristics for evaluating the ability of every protein to regulate a cell process. Using these measures, he evaluates the efficiency of TFs and other protein classes to regulate the biological process pathways. It was found that TFs, on average, are not the best class for regulating an individual cell process. They have lower regulatory specificity, (i.e., single TF tends to regulate many different biological processes). TFs also tend to be placed downstream in the biological process pathways, being a target of the regulatory relation more often than being a regulator. Possible implications of these findings for drug development are discussed.