Nuclear receptor coactivator RAC3 inhibits autophagy.

FERNANDEZ LARROSA P N; ALVARADO C V; RUBIO M. FERNANDA; RUIZ GRECCO M; MICENMACHER S; MARTINEZ NOEL G; PANELO L.C.; COSTAS M A

CANCER SCIENCE

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2012 vol. 103 p. 2064 - 2071

1347-9032

RAC3 is an oncogen naturally over-expressed in several tumours. Besides its role as coactivator, it can exert several protumoral cytoplasmatic actions. Autophagy was found to act either as a tumour suppressor during early stages of tumour development, or as a protector of the tumoral cell in later stages under hypoxia conditions. We found that RAC3 over-expression inhibits autophagy when induced by starvation or rapamycin and involves RAC3 nuclear-translocation-dependent and independent mechanisms. Moreover, hypoxia inhibits the RAC3 gene expression leading to autophagy process, allowing tumoral cells to survive until angiogenesis occurs. The interplay between RAC3, hypoxia and autophagy could be an important mechanism for tumour progression and a good target for a future anti-cancer therapy. doi: 10.1111/cas.12019. [Epub ahead of print]