The Roles of a Novel Anti-apoptotic Protein, TUCAN-54, in Cancer Cells

• Published in: Journal of the Mass Spectrometry Society of Japan Vol. 54; no. 3; pp. 97 - 102
• Main Authors: KAMIGUCHI, Kenjiro, TORIGOE, Toshihiko, YAMAMOTO, Masaaki, SATO, Noriyuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Tokyo The Mass Spectrometry Society of Japan 01.01.2006; Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Cancer; Caspase
• ISSN: 1340-8097; 1880-4225
• DOI: 10.5702/massspec.54.97

Several mechanisms have been described by which malignant cells escape from the immune system and/or chemotherapy. Recently we isolated TUCAN-54 gene that is over-expressed in a wide variety of epithelial cancers but not in normal counterparts. TUCAN-54 inhibited both death receptor-mediated and mitochondria/cytochrome C-mediated apoptosis. Moreover, down-regulation of TUCAN-54 in colon cancer cells by siRNA treatment could increase the sensitivity of the cells to an anti-cancer drug. Finally, we revealed that Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) was physically associated with TUCAN-54, but not with TUCAN-48. Thus, TUCAN-54 might be a novel tumor-specific anti-apoptotic molecule, which might aggravate malignant potential of cancer cells, such as immunoresistance and chemoresistance.