Molekulare und genetische Medizin

RAF-MEK-MAPK Pathway Targeted by Tumor Suppression and Anticancer Therapeutic Agents

Abstract

Zhang X, Zhou J, Li T, Zheng B, He Z and Huang Z

RAS-RAF-MEK-MAPK pathway comprises a group of kinases which regulates the activities of effector proteins in growth, proliferation and apoptosis. The extracellular signals from growth factors, cytokines and other stimuli transmitted by surface receptors and upstream signaling molecules are integrated by this cascade of kinases whose activity is regulated by the interaction of oncoproteins and tumor suppressors. The anomaly of the signaling pathway would lead to occurrence of malignancies. The RAS-RAF-MEK-MAPK pathway is therefore targeted by anticancer therapeutic agents. The present paper discussed the interaction of individual component with tumor suppressors and the impact of their inhibitor on the efficacy of anticancer therapy, and improvement on small molecule inhibitor of RAS-RAF-MEK-MAPK pathway with modified targeting has been proposed.