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Aberrant mRNA translation in cancer pathogenesis: an old concept revisited comes finally of age

Abstract

As the molecular processes that control mRNA translation and ribosome biogenesis in the eukaryotic cell are extremely complex and multilayered, their deregulation can in principle occur at multiple levels, leading to both disease and cancer pathogenesis. For a long time, it was speculated that disruption of these processes may participate in tumorigenesis, but this notion was, until recently, solely supported by correlative studies. Strong genetic support is now being accrued, while new molecular links between tumor-suppressive and oncogenic pathways and the control of protein synthetic machinery are being unraveled. The importance of aberrant protein synthesis in tumorigenesis is further underscored by the discovery that compounds such as Rapamycin, known to modulate signaling pathways regulatory of this process, are effective anticancer drugs. A number of fundamental questions remain to be addressed and a number of novel ones emerge as this exciting field evolves.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the members of the Molecular and Developmental Biology (MADB) lab and, in particular, the present and past members of the team working on deregulated translational control in tumorigenesis: Davide Ruggero, Silvia Grisendi, Li Ma, Lorenzo Montanaro, Wei Xu. We are grateful to Linda DiSantis for coordinating this whole special issue and for editing this introductory chapter as well as the manuscript by Holland et al. This work is supported by NCI grants to PPP.

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Correspondence to Pier Paolo Pandolfi.

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Pandolfi, P. Aberrant mRNA translation in cancer pathogenesis: an old concept revisited comes finally of age. Oncogene 23, 3134–3137 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1207618

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