Cole M D, Nikiforov M A
Department of Pharmacology, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA.
Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 2006;302:33-50. doi: 10.1007/3-540-32952-8_2.
The Myc transcription factor functions as a downstream effector of most mitogenic signals. Myc is synthesized rapidly in response to extracellular mitogenic signals, and blocking Myc induction abolishes or at least severely attenuates any mitogenic response. Furthermore, ectopic Myc expression can often bypass the requirement for extracellular signals for entry into S phase. Thus, the Myc transcription factor is both necessary and in many ways sufficient to promote the growth of diverse cell types. Given this potent biological activity, it is not surprising that mutations in the myc gene are among the most frequent in human and animal cancers. Understanding the molecular basis of Myc function has been a central issue in the fields of cancer biology and signal transduction for 20 years.
Myc转录因子作为大多数促有丝分裂信号的下游效应器发挥作用。Myc会响应细胞外促有丝分裂信号而迅速合成，阻断Myc的诱导会消除或至少严重减弱任何促有丝分裂反应。此外，异位Myc表达通常可以绕过进入S期对细胞外信号的需求。因此，Myc转录因子对于促进多种细胞类型的生长既是必需的，在许多方面也是充分的。鉴于这种强大的生物学活性，myc基因的突变在人类和动物癌症中最为常见也就不足为奇了。20年来，了解Myc功能的分子基础一直是癌症生物学和信号转导领域的核心问题。
