title: Cancer's Achilles' Heel: Apoptosis and Necroptosis to the Rescue.
abstract: Apoptosis, and the more recently discovered necroptosis, are two avenues of programmed cell death. Cancer cells survive by evading these two programs, driven by oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. While traditional therapy using small molecular inhibitors and chemotherapy are continuously being utilized, a new and exciting approach is actively underway by identifying and using synergistic relationship between driver and rescue genes in a cancer cell. Through these synthetic lethal relationships, we are gaining tremendous insights into tumor vulnerabilities and specific molecular avenues for induction of programmed cell death. In this review, we briefly discuss the two cell death processes and cite examples of such synergistic manipulations for therapeutic purposes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. adasgupt@bcm.edu.
authors.forename: Atreyi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dasgupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. nomura@bcm.edu.
authors.forename: Motonari
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. shuck@bcm.edu.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shuck
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. yustein@bcm.edu.|Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. yustein@bcm.edu.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yustein
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017209:Apoptosis; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D004357:Drug Synergism; D006801:Humans; D009336:Necrosis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents
keywords: DNA damage; apoptosis; cancer; necroptosis; necrosis; synergy; synthetic lethality; therapeutics