The Par-4/PTEN connection in tumor suppression. Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Tumor suppressors function in a coordinated regulatory network, and their inactivation is a key step in carcinogenesis. The tumor suppressor Par-4 is a novel integral player in the PTEN network. Thus, Par-4 is absent in a high percentage of human prostate carcinomas, and its loss is concomitantly associated with PTEN loss. Genetic ablation of Par-4 induces fully invasive prostate carcinomas in PTEN-heterozygous mice. In contrast, Par-4 deficiency alone, like PTEN heterozygosis, results in lesions that are unable to progress beyond the benign neoplastic stage known as PIN. At this PIN transition, the mutual induction of Par-4 and PTEN is an additional regulatory step in preventing cancer progression. Par-4 deficiency cooperates with PTEN haploinsufficiency in prostate cancer initiation and progression and their simultaneous inactivation, in addition to enhancing Akt activation, sets in motion a unique mechanism involving the synergistic activation of NFkappaB. These results suggest that the concurrent interruption of complementary signaling pathways targeting PI3K/Akt and NFkappaB activation could provide new and effective strategies for cancer therapy.

publication date

  • August 29, 2009

Research

keywords

  • PTEN Phosphohydrolase
  • Prostatic Neoplasms
  • Receptors, Thrombin

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC3974426

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 69249219273

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.4161/cc.8.16.9384

PubMed ID

  • 19625770

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 8

issue

  • 16