Choline kinase alpha in cancer prognosis and treatment.

摘要

Choline kinase (ChoK) overexpression and increased activity have been shown in malignant cells and tumours of the lung, colon, breast, prostate, and ovaries. In mammalian cells, three isoforms of ChoK are known, which are encoded by two separate genes chkalpha and chkbeta, with two functional isoforms ChoKalpha1 and ChoKalpha2 resulting from alternative splicing of the chkalpha transcript. Homodimeric and heterodimeric forms of ChoK confer its enzymatic activity of phosphorylating free choline (Cho) to form phosphocholine (figure 1). ChoKis regulated by several growth factors and hormones, can be induced by carcinogens, and contributes to malignant transformation and progression. Pharmacological and RNA interference(RNAi)-mediated targeting of ChoKalpha are currently being studied as potential anticancer treatments.