Molecular architecture of tumor suppressor p53.
p53 is a transcription factor central to cellular DNA metabolism that controls cellular responses to DNA damage. p53 activity, finely regulated, integrates the information from several pathways to preserve the cell's genetic information. Great attention has been given to the structural determination of p53 domains and its cancerous mutants because 50% of cancer cases present mutations in p53 that hinder its activity resulting in uncontrolled cell reproduction. We enumerate the multiple studies carried to elucidate the structure of p53 domains and we highlight their main findings. The ultimate goal of the reviewed structural efforts is to understand p53 function at atomic level with the aim to overcome cancer by reversing p53 mutant activity to its normal function.
Viadiu
Hector
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Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. MC 0378, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. viadiu@ucsd.edu
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D015533:Transcriptional Activation; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D004247:DNA