Significance of Prion and Prion-Like Proteins in Cancer Development, Progression and Multi-Drug Resistance.

Significance of Prion and Prion-Like Proteins in Cancer Development, Progression and Multi-Drug Resistance. Curr Cancer Drug Targets. 2013 Sep 5; Authors: Hinton C, Antony H, Hashimi SM, Munn A, Wei MQ Abstract Prions are renowned for their role in neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals. These are manifested as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) that result from the conversion of the normal glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchored cellular prion protein (PrPc) to a misfolded, aggregated and pathogenic form, prion protein scrapie (PrPSc) via a post-translational process followed by the accumulation of PrPSc within the central nervous system. New research in this area has demonstrated that PrP is over-expressed in a variety of cancers including gastric, pancreatic and breast cancers, affecting the growth and invasiveness of these cancers as well as playing an important role in the acquisition of multi-drug resistant (MDR) gastric cancer. Prion-like doppel protein (Dpl), sharing 25% amino acid sequence homology to PrP and whose function remains elusive, has also been shown to exhibit a high level of expression in a number of cancers including acute myeloid leukemia's, myelodysplastic syndromes, gastric adenocarcinoma, anaplastic meningioma and astrocytomas. Furthermore, the tumour suppressor protein, p53, already known for its involvement in cancer development, has recently been shown to display prion-like tendencies. T...
Source: Current Cancer Drug Targets - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Curr Cancer Drug Targets Source Type: research