Three birds with one stone

摘要

The core domain of the p53 protein has been found to affect microRNA processing - its third known antitumour activity. Most cancerous p53 mutations affect this domain and may abolish all tumour-suppressor functions.rnThe p53 protein is a major tumour suppressor. The gene that encodes it (TP53) is mutated in about half of human cancers, and most remaining tumours find other ways to inactivate the p53 pathway. p53 functions mainly as a transcription factor, and responds to stresses such as DNA damage by binding to specific DNA sequences and activating target genes that promote programmed cell death (apoptosis) or permanent cell-cycle arrest (senescence). Most TP53 mutations in cancers affect the proteins core DNA-binding domain and abrogate p53's transcriptional activity.