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      Apoptosis as anticancer mechanism: function and dysfunction of its modulators and targeted therapeutic strategies

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          Abstract

          Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death that results in the orderly and efficient removal of damaged cells, such as those resulting from DNA damage or during development. Apoptosis can be triggered by signals from within the cell, such as genotoxic stress, or by extrinsic signals, such as the binding of ligands to cell surface death receptors. Deregulation in apoptotic cell death machinery is an hallmark of cancer. Apoptosis alteration is responsible not only for tumor development and progression but also for tumor resistance to therapies. Most anticancer drugs currently used in clinical oncology exploit the intact apoptotic signaling pathways to trigger cancer cell death. Thus, defects in the death pathways may result in drug resistance so limiting the efficacy of therapies. Therefore, a better understanding of the apoptotic cell death signaling pathways may improve the efficacy of cancer therapy and bypass resistance. This review will highlight the role of the fundamental regulators of apoptosis and how their deregulation, including activation of anti-apoptotic factors (i.e., Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, etc) or inactivation of pro-apoptotic factors (i.e., p53 pathway) ends up in cancer cell resistance to therapies. In addition, therapeutic strategies aimed at modulating apoptotic activity are briefly discussed.

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          Most cited references139

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          Cell death: critical control points.

          Programmed cell death is a distinct genetic and biochemical pathway essential to metazoans. An intact death pathway is required for successful embryonic development and the maintenance of normal tissue homeostasis. Apoptosis has proven to be tightly interwoven with other essential cell pathways. The identification of critical control points in the cell death pathway has yielded fundamental insights for basic biology, as well as provided rational targets for new therapeutics.
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            Old, new and emerging functions of caspases.

            Caspases are proteases with a well-defined role in apoptosis. However, increasing evidence indicates multiple functions of caspases outside apoptosis. Caspase-1 and caspase-11 have roles in inflammation and mediating inflammatory cell death by pyroptosis. Similarly, caspase-8 has dual role in cell death, mediating both receptor-mediated apoptosis and in its absence, necroptosis. Caspase-8 also functions in maintenance and homeostasis of the adult T-cell population. Caspase-3 has important roles in tissue differentiation, regeneration and neural development in ways that are distinct and do not involve any apoptotic activity. Several other caspases have demonstrated anti-tumor roles. Notable among them are caspase-2, -8 and -14. However, increased caspase-2 and -8 expression in certain types of tumor has also been linked to promoting tumorigenesis. Increased levels of caspase-3 in tumor cells causes apoptosis and secretion of paracrine factors that promotes compensatory proliferation in surrounding normal tissues, tumor cell repopulation and presents a barrier for effective therapeutic strategies. Besides this caspase-2 has emerged as a unique caspase with potential roles in maintaining genomic stability, metabolism, autophagy and aging. The present review focuses on some of these less studied and emerging functions of mammalian caspases.
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              The microcosmos of cancer.

              The discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) almost two decades ago established a new paradigm of gene regulation. During the past ten years these tiny non-coding RNAs have been linked to virtually all known physiological and pathological processes, including cancer. In the same way as certain key protein-coding genes, miRNAs can be deregulated in cancer, in which they can function as a group to mark differentiation states or individually as bona fide oncogenes or tumour suppressors. Importantly, miRNA biology can be harnessed experimentally to investigate cancer phenotypes or used therapeutically as a target for drugs or as the drug itself.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Aging (Albany NY)
                Aging (Albany NY)
                Aging
                ImpactJ
                Aging (Albany NY)
                Impact Journals LLC
                1945-4589
                April 2016
                27 March 2016
                : 8
                : 4
                : 603-619
                Affiliations
                1 Department of Systems Medicine, University “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy
                2 Department of Research, Advanced Diagnostics, and Technological Innovation, Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, 00158 Rome, Italy
                3 Department of Medical Oral and Biotechnological Sciences, Tumor Biology Unit, University “G. d'Annunzio”, 66013 Chieti, Italy
                Author notes
                Correspondence to: Gabriella D'Orazi gabriella.dorazi@ 123456unich.it
                Article
                100934
                10.18632/aging.100934
                4925817
                27019364
                9d1d643e-0d0f-4a07-956c-82b6bb23038e
                Copyright: © 2016 Pistritto et al.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 4 January 2016
                : 8 March 2016
                Categories
                Review

                Cell biology
                apoptosis,defective apoptotic pathways,cancer,small molecules,mirnas,p53
                Cell biology
                apoptosis, defective apoptotic pathways, cancer, small molecules, mirnas, p53

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