糖皮質激素受體(GR)是保守的核受體超家族中的一員，屬于核轉錄因子，其家族成員主要包括鹽皮質激素受體、雄激素受體、甲狀腺激素受體、維生素D受體等多種受體，被激活后通過與核內靶基因上的一段特定DNA序列結合從而調控基因的轉錄，發揮各種生物效應。
GR先前已被證明在細胞發育、免疫反應和代謝過程中發揮作用。它幾乎存在于人體內的所有細胞中。許多廣泛使用的藥物，包括類固醇，都是通過這種蛋白質而起作用。
四月六日，在美國國家科學院院刊《PNAS》發表的一項最新研究中，來自曼徹斯特大學的研究人員表明，當科學家們減少GR表達之后，它發揮了一個新角色。延伸閱讀：Nature子刊：一種抑癌蛋白的新作用。
他們發現，缺乏GR的細胞，細胞分裂被打亂，染色體出現錯誤。因為染色體錯誤是癌癥的一個特征，他們減少GR在小鼠的表達，并觀察到，隨著年齡的增加，腫瘤有所增大。進一步的分析表明，與周圍的正常組織相比，腫瘤組織具有更少的GR。
曼徹斯特大學人類發展研究所David Ray教授帶領了這項研究。他說：“癌癥是由細胞分裂出錯造成的，但沒有人曾探究GR在這個過程中發揮的作用。現在很清楚，它是至關重要的。”
他們研究了幾種常見的人類癌癥，包括前列腺癌、肺癌、肝癌、結腸癌和乳腺癌，發現在某些癌細胞類型中GR表達下降是一個共同特征，從而表明GR和腫瘤惡性進展之間存在重要的關系，GR可能充當一種腫瘤抑制基因。
本文第一作者Laura Matthews補充說：“我們需要開展更多的研究，但是這些這種新的機制，為我們了解‘癌癥是如何形成的’提供了更多見解，而有了這些知識，我們就能更有針對性地開發新的治療方法，最終可能被用于人類。”
原文標題：Glucocorticoid receptor regulates accurate chromosome segregation and is associated with malignancy
原文摘要：Abstract：The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, which controls programs regulating cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. We have identified an unexpected role for GR in mitosis. We discovered that specifically modified GR species accumulate at the mitotic spindle during mitosis in a distribution that overlaps with Aurora kinases. We found that Aurora A was required to mediate mitosis-driven GR phosphorylation, but not recruitment of GR to the spindle. GR was necessary for mitotic progression, with increased time to complete mitosis, frequency of mitotic aberrations, and death in mitosis observed following GR knockdown. Complementation studies revealed an essential role for the GR ligand-binding domain, but no clear requirement for ligand binding in regulating chromosome segregation. The GR N-terminal domain, and specifically phosphosites S203 and S211, were not required. Reduced GRexpression results in a cell cycle phenotype, with isolated cells from mouse and human subjects showing changes in chromosome content over prolonged passage. Furthermore, GR haploinsufficient mice have an increased incidence of tumor formation, and, strikingly, these tumors are further depleted for GR, implying additional GR loss as a consequence of cell transformation. We identified reduced GR expression in a panel of human liver, lung, prostate, colon, and breast cancers. We therefore reveal an unexpected role for the GR in promoting accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis, which is causally linked to tumorigenesis, making GR an authentic tumor suppressor gene. |
