The insulin-RB synapse in health and disease: cellular rocket science

Time has come for a survey of our knowledge on the physical interaction between the growth-promoting insulin molecule and retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (RB). Theoretical and experimental observations over the past 15 years reviewed here indicate that the insulin-RB dimer may represent an essential molecular crossroads involved in major physiological and pathological conditions. Within this system, the putative tumor suppressor insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) should be an important modulator. Perhaps most remarkably, the abstraction of this encounter between insulin and RB, two growth-regulatory giants acting either in concert or against each other depending on the respective cellular requirements, reveals that Nature may compute in controlling cell fate and we could follow in its footsteps towards developing more efficient therapeutics as well as novel technical devices.