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The Duality of Caspases in Cancer, as Told through the Fly

Caspases, a family of cysteine-aspartic proteases, have an established role as critical components in the activation and initiation of apoptosis. Alongside this a variety of non-apoptotic caspase functions in proliferation, differentiation, cellular plasticity and cell migration have been reported....

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Autores principales: Hounsell, Caitlin, Fan, Yun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8396359/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34445633
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22168927
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author Hounsell, Caitlin
Fan, Yun
author_facet Hounsell, Caitlin
Fan, Yun
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description Caspases, a family of cysteine-aspartic proteases, have an established role as critical components in the activation and initiation of apoptosis. Alongside this a variety of non-apoptotic caspase functions in proliferation, differentiation, cellular plasticity and cell migration have been reported. The activity level and context are important factors in determining caspase function. As a consequence of their critical role in apoptosis and beyond, caspases are uniquely situated to have pathological roles, including in cancer. Altered caspase function is a common trait in a variety of cancers, with apoptotic evasion defined as a “hallmark of cancer”. However, the role that caspases play in cancer is much more complex, acting both to prevent and to promote tumourigenesis. This review focuses on the major findings in Drosophila on the dual role of caspases in tumourigenesis. This has major implications for cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with the activation of apoptosis being the end goal. However, such treatments may inadvertently have adverse effects on promoting tumour progression and acerbating the cancer. A comprehensive understanding of the dual role of caspases will aid in the development of successful cancer therapeutic approaches.
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spelling pubmed-83963592021-08-28 The Duality of Caspases in Cancer, as Told through the Fly Hounsell, Caitlin Fan, Yun Int J Mol Sci Review Caspases, a family of cysteine-aspartic proteases, have an established role as critical components in the activation and initiation of apoptosis. Alongside this a variety of non-apoptotic caspase functions in proliferation, differentiation, cellular plasticity and cell migration have been reported. The activity level and context are important factors in determining caspase function. As a consequence of their critical role in apoptosis and beyond, caspases are uniquely situated to have pathological roles, including in cancer. Altered caspase function is a common trait in a variety of cancers, with apoptotic evasion defined as a “hallmark of cancer”. However, the role that caspases play in cancer is much more complex, acting both to prevent and to promote tumourigenesis. This review focuses on the major findings in Drosophila on the dual role of caspases in tumourigenesis. This has major implications for cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with the activation of apoptosis being the end goal. However, such treatments may inadvertently have adverse effects on promoting tumour progression and acerbating the cancer. A comprehensive understanding of the dual role of caspases will aid in the development of successful cancer therapeutic approaches. MDPI 2021-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8396359/ /pubmed/34445633 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22168927 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Hounsell, Caitlin
Fan, Yun
The Duality of Caspases in Cancer, as Told through the Fly
title The Duality of Caspases in Cancer, as Told through the Fly
title_full The Duality of Caspases in Cancer, as Told through the Fly
title_fullStr The Duality of Caspases in Cancer, as Told through the Fly
title_full_unstemmed The Duality of Caspases in Cancer, as Told through the Fly
title_short The Duality of Caspases in Cancer, as Told through the Fly
title_sort duality of caspases in cancer, as told through the fly
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8396359/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34445633
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22168927
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