PUMA基因在肿瘤治疗方面的研究进展

PUMA gene in cancer treatment

p53上调凋亡调控因子（PUMA）是近年发现的Bcl-2家族成员，因其可被p53快速诱导并具有强大促凋亡作用而在生命科学的研究领域受到广泛关注。PUMA不仅能够诱导多种肿瘤细胞凋亡，抑制肿瘤细胞增殖，还能增加肿瘤细胞对放化疗的敏感性，是非常有前景的肿瘤基因治疗靶点。也有新的研究发现PUMA还在肿瘤发生过程中承担着更多的生物学功能。

PUMA （p53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis） is a recently discovered Bcl-2 family member which could be rapidly induced by p53 and has strong pro-apoptotic effects. PUMA has attracted much attention in the research of life science. PUMA expression results in potent growth suppression of some cancer cells through induction of apoptosis. PUMA can also significantly sensitize some cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents and irradiation through induction of apoptosis. PUMA is potentially useful in gene therapy of tumor. But recently, researchers have also found that PUMA participates in the process of carcinogenesis and possessed important biological functions.