Dose–response relationships: an overview, a generative model and its application to the verification of descriptive models

Taking as a starting point a set of simple quantitative hypotheses regarding the possible relationships between cell receptors and effector molecules, a statistical algorithm or generative model is developed that simulates different types of dose–response (DR) profiles and whose results are used in two ways, both subject to empirical verification. In the first of these, the suitability of several common descriptive models for the study of DR relationships is discussed, and changes are introduced that improve their suitability for this conceptual framework, generalise their application and lead to the systematisation of possible interactions between more than one effector, as well as between the effects of self-stimulating and self-depressor mechanisms. Secondly, the generative model suggests the existence of some unexpected profiles and their possible explanations. Both the profiles and the hypotheses appear to be supported by experimental evidence.