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Transcription
factor profiling unveils the oncogenes involved in the
pathogenesis of cutaneous T cell lymphomas
Udo Döbbeling
Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Zurich,
Gloriastrasse 31, Zurich Switzerland.
E-mail:
udo.doebbeling@usz.ch.
Tel: +41 44 255 2043. Fax: +41 44 255 4418.
Accepted 9 February, 2009 |
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The finding in colon carcinoma that cancerogenesis is a
sequence of activation of different oncogenes and
inactivation of tumor suppressor genes has increased the
efforts to identify the genes that are responsible for the
progression of different kinds of cancer. Many activated
oncogenes and inactivated tumor suppressor genes have been
detected in cancer cells during the last decades, but for
most cancers no network or sequence of oncogenes could be
identified that could explain the progression of the disease
and allow a molecular staging of the disease. Several
strategies have been tried to find the genes that make
cancer cells different from their normal counterparts,
however, mostly only with little success. In this review
article it will be reported how the strategy of
transcription factor profiling helped to identify the genes
that are responsible for the progression of two kinds of
cutaneous lymphomas: Mycosis fungoides and the Sézary
syndrome. By this way we were able to identify several
agents that may be the prototypes of new drugs to fight
these diseases.
Key words:
Signal transduction, oncogenes, electrophoretic mobility
shift, transcription factor ELISA, tyrosine kinase
inhibitors, apoptosis inducers, skin cancer. |
