Method and means for detecting and/or quantifying hierarchical molecular change of a cell in response to an external stimulus

A method for characterizing hierarchical molecular change of a cell in response to an external biological, physical and/or chemical stimulus, by integrating at least a first level of a cell function and a second level of a cell function, the molecules involved in the first level being regulatory molecules interacting with the expression of the molecules of the second level, by the following steps:

• a) obtaining a cell extract from the cell;
• b) detecting and/or quantifying a molecular cell change at a first level of the cell function by submitting the cell extract to a first assay upon microarray, said first assay capable of obtaining:
• a detection and/or a quantification of at least 5 different activated transcriptional factors present in the cell extract and/or,
• a detection and/or a quantification of the activity of at least 5 different MAP-kinases;
• c) detecting and/or quantifying a molecular cell change at a second level of a cell function, by submitting the same cell extract to a second assay upon microarray, said second assay comprising:
• a detection and/or a quantification of at least 10 different expressed genes and/or,
• a detection and/or a quantification of at least 10 different corresponding proteins encoded by these expressed genes, wherein the expressed genes and the corresponding synthesized proteins are regulated by the activated transcriptional factors and MAP-kinases of the first level of the cell function,
• d) collecting the results of detection and/or quantification of the expressed genes and/or synthesized proteins and the results of the detection and/or the quantification of the activated transcriptional factors and/or activated MAP-kinases;
• e) correlating the said results of the detection and/or the quantification of the expressed genes and/or synthesized proteins to the said results of the detection and/or the quantification of the activated transcriptional factors and/or activated MAP-kinases;
• f) integrating the results of said detection and/or quantification and their correlation in a model of a hierarchical system, by a computer,
• g) characterizing the hierarchical molecular change in the cell resulting from the external biological, physical and/or chemical stimulus that provides the functional links between the molecular change of the cell detected and/or quantified in the first level and second level.