Synthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer.

The great majority of targeted anticancer drugs inhibit mutated oncogenes that display increased activity. Yet many tumors do not contain such actionable aberrations, such as those harboring loss-of-function mutations. The notion of targeting synthetic lethal vulnerabilities in cancer cells has prov...

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Main Authors: Fece de la Cruz, F, Gapp, B, Nijman, S
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2015
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author Fece de la Cruz, F
Gapp, B
Nijman, S
author_facet Fece de la Cruz, F
Gapp, B
Nijman, S
author_sort Fece de la Cruz, F
collection OXFORD
description The great majority of targeted anticancer drugs inhibit mutated oncogenes that display increased activity. Yet many tumors do not contain such actionable aberrations, such as those harboring loss-of-function mutations. The notion of targeting synthetic lethal vulnerabilities in cancer cells has provided an alternative approach to exploiting more of the genetic and epigenetic changes acquired during tumorigenesis. Here, we review synthetic lethality as a therapeutic concept that exploits the inherent differences between normal cells and cancer cells. Furthermore, we provide an overview of the screening approaches that can be used to identify synthetic lethal interactions in human cells and present several recently identified interactions that may be pharmacologically exploited. Finally, we indicate some of the challenges of translating synthetic lethal interactions into the clinic and how these may be overcome.
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spelling oxford-uuid:1f43e649-e34c-4f7d-8394-9429681bf0b12022-03-26T11:20:50ZSynthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1f43e649-e34c-4f7d-8394-9429681bf0b1EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2015Fece de la Cruz, FGapp, BNijman, SThe great majority of targeted anticancer drugs inhibit mutated oncogenes that display increased activity. Yet many tumors do not contain such actionable aberrations, such as those harboring loss-of-function mutations. The notion of targeting synthetic lethal vulnerabilities in cancer cells has provided an alternative approach to exploiting more of the genetic and epigenetic changes acquired during tumorigenesis. Here, we review synthetic lethality as a therapeutic concept that exploits the inherent differences between normal cells and cancer cells. Furthermore, we provide an overview of the screening approaches that can be used to identify synthetic lethal interactions in human cells and present several recently identified interactions that may be pharmacologically exploited. Finally, we indicate some of the challenges of translating synthetic lethal interactions into the clinic and how these may be overcome.
spellingShingle Fece de la Cruz, F
Gapp, B
Nijman, S
Synthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer.
title Synthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer.
title_full Synthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer.
title_fullStr Synthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer.
title_full_unstemmed Synthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer.
title_short Synthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer.
title_sort synthetic lethal vulnerabilities of cancer
work_keys_str_mv AT fecedelacruzf syntheticlethalvulnerabilitiesofcancer
AT gappb syntheticlethalvulnerabilitiesofcancer
AT nijmans syntheticlethalvulnerabilitiesofcancer