Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
J Clin Invest. 2013 Sep;123(9):3706-8. doi: 10.1172/JCI71440. Epub 2013 Aug 27.
Numerous solid tumors and hematologic malignancies acquire resistance to apoptosis-inducing chemotherapeutic drugs by downregulating the key effector caspase-3. These cells rely on caspase-7 to execute the apoptotic program, yet binding with XIAP constitutively inhibits active caspase-7 (p19/p12-CASP7). In this issue, Lin et al. describe how a newly synthesized drug is able to disrupt the XIAP:p19/p12-CASP7 complex and induce apoptosis in caspase-3-deficient cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. As this compound appears to exhibit minimal toxicity on normal tissues, it may represent a promising therapeutic agent to help treat caspase-3-deficient tumors.
许多实体肿瘤和血液恶性肿瘤通过下调关键效应子半胱天冬酶-3 来获得对诱导细胞凋亡的化疗药物的耐药性。这些细胞依赖半胱天冬酶-7 来执行凋亡程序,但 XIAP 的结合会持续抑制活性半胱天冬酶-7(p19/p12-CASP7)。在本期中,Lin 等人描述了一种新合成的药物如何能够破坏 XIAP:p19/p12-CASP7 复合物,并在体外和体内诱导 caspase-3 缺陷型癌细胞凋亡。由于该化合物对正常组织的毒性似乎很小,因此它可能代表一种有前途的治疗药物,有助于治疗 caspase-3 缺陷型肿瘤。