title: Homeobox protein VentX induces p53-independent apoptosis in cancer cells.
abstract: Identifying novel tumor suppressors holds promise for improving cancer treatment. Our recent studies identified VentX, a homeobox transcriptional factor, as a putative tumor suppressor. Here we demonstrate that VentX exerts strong inhibitory effects on the proliferation and survival of cancer cells, but not primary transformed cells, such as 293T cells. Mechanistically, both in vitro and in vivo data showed that VentX induces apoptosis of cancer cells in a p53-independent manner. We found that VentX expression can be induced by chemotherapeutic agents. Taken together, our findings suggest that VentX may function as a novel therapeutic target in cancer treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA.|Current address: Department of Medicine, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA.|Current address: Department of Gastroenterology, Third Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Zhenglun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D017209:Apoptosis; D053148:Caspase 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D045325:HCT116 Cells; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C495901:TP53 protein, human; D014157:Transcription Factors; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C408346:VENTX protein, human; C505407:CASP3 protein, human; D053148:Caspase 3
keywords: PARP; apoptosis; caspase-3; p53; ventX