Mechanism of p53 Dependent Apoptosis and its Role in Breast Cancer Therapy

Abstract

The p53 protein contains several functional domains. We found that activation domain 2 and proline-rich domain are necessary for the apoptotic activity but not cell cycle arrest and form an activation domain for inducing pro-apoptotic genes. We also found that at least two of the three domains, that is, activation domain 1 and 2 and the proline-rich domain, are necessary for cell cycle arrest. Interestingly, we found that deletion of activation domain 1 alleviates the requirement of the C-terminal basic domain for apoptotic activity. Therefore, we generated a small but very potent apoptotic inducer of p53 n MCF7 Breast cancer cells. To determine the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents in inducing apoptosis, we found that at a comparable expression level, p73, but not p53, cooperate DNA Damage agents to induce apoptosis in MCF7 cells in a p53-dependent manner. As an extension of our studies to determine how p53 functions as a tumor suppressor, we identified five novel p53 and p73 target genes, including Dickkopf-l (Dkk-i), an antagonist of the Wnt oncogenic pathway, and TAP 1, a transporter of major histocompatibility class I antigens. This suggests that p53 may suppress transformation by Wnt and play a role in immunosurveillance.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA396367

Entities

People

  • Xinbin Chen

Organizations

  • Medical College of Georgia

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Biomedical And Dental Materials
  • Birds
  • Breast Cancer
  • Cell Physiological Processes
  • Cells
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Chromosomes
  • Epithelial Cells
  • Genetics
  • Genomic Instability
  • Hereditary Diseases
  • Metabolic Diseases
  • Neoplasms
  • Proteins
  • Tumor Cell Line

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Breast cancer cell signaling and growth regulation.
  • Immunology
  • Prostate Cancer Biology.