P53 Tumor Suppressor Gene and Cancer

P53 Tumor Suppressor Gene and Cancer

Abdul , Razaque Memon

Human cells face many dangers, including chemicals, viruses and ionizing radiation. If cells are damaged in sensitive places by these attackers the effect can be disastrous. Highly regulated processes become deregulated due to genetic alterations that lead to cellular transformation. Guardians of genomes (Tumour suppressor genes) play a crucial role in the protection of our cells. Tumour suppressor genes are involved in a diversity of cellular processes such as cell cycle control, replication, recombination, signal transduction, repair, differentiation and aging. One of our guardian genes is p53 Tumour suppressor gene; restrict cell cycle progression, p53 lost its function by genetic alteration (mutation) or some external factors. TP53 gene contribute to about half of the cases of human cancer. Most of the mutations that cause mutant p53 protein production are missense mutations, mutant p53 unable to stop multiplication in the damaged cell. The function of p53 protein can also be blocked by indirect factors. Some viral proteins form complexes with p53 protein thereby functionally inactivating it, accumulation of wild type p53 in the cytoplasm, over expression of mdm2 protein are also inactivate p53 protein, PTEN mutation leads to an increase of AKT activity, an increase of nuclear mdm2 and impairs p53 response Keywords: TP53 gene, p53 inactivation, mutation, PTEN mutation, mdm2 protein.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05-31

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