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A review of the role of Puma, Noxa and Bim in the tumorigenesis, therapy and drug resistance of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 20, pages 1–7 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common leukemia in adults in the Western countries. The entire pathogenesis of CLL is not clear now, but defective regulation of apoptosis seems to be more important than uncontrolled cell proliferation in CLL. There are two main pathways of apoptosis: the extrinsic pathway and the intrinsic pathway. It is worth noting that the intrinsic pathway, rather than the extrinsic pathway, appears to be the key mediator of impaired apoptosis in CLL as a result of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) upregulation. One subclass of pro-apoptotic members within the Bcl-2 family are Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3)-only proteins. They can regulate directly and/or indirectly the remaining Bcl-2 proteins to endanger mitochondria and induce apoptosis. We chose three molecules from the BH3-only family, Puma, Noxa and Bim, respectively, which had shown an exciting antitumor potential in previous reports, to explore their characters and functions in tumorigenesis, therapy and drug resistance of CLL.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (30871104, 30971296, 81170488), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK2010584), Key Projects of Health Department of Jiangsu Province (K201108), Jiangsu Province’s Medical Elite Program (RC2011169), University Doctoral Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (20093234110010), the Program for Development of Innovative Research Team in the First Affiliated Hospital of NJMU, and the project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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  1. Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Jiangsu Province Hospital, Nanjing, China

    L-N Zhang, J-Y Li & W Xu

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Zhang, LN., Li, JY. & Xu, W. A review of the role of Puma, Noxa and Bim in the tumorigenesis, therapy and drug resistance of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Cancer Gene Ther 20, 1–7 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/cgt.2012.84

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