title: Synthetic lethal genetic screens in Ras mutant cancers.
abstract: Mutations in the Ras family of small GTPases are among the most frequent oncogenic events in human cancer. Difficulties in targeting Ras itself and the limited efficacy in targeting its effector kinases have spurred the search for Ras synthetic lethal genes that could shed new light on the biology of Ras-driven cancer and lead to new therapeutic strategies. Advances in mammalian RNAi technology have enabled high-throughput functional screens for Ras synthetic lethal interactions. In this chapter, we summarize the strategies and findings from these screens and discuss future improvement for Ras synthetic lethality studies.
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Electronic address: ji.luo@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005813:Genes, Synthetic / Q000235:genetics*; D005820:Genetic Testing; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000628:therapy; D034622:RNA Interference; D018631:ras Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018631:ras Proteins
keywords: Non-oncogene addiction; RNAi screen; Synthetic lethality; shRNA; siRNA