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BCL-2 Proteins and their Role in Cancer Resistance

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Drug Resistance in Bacteria, Fungi, Malaria, and Cancer

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Abstract

BCl2 family proteins are major players in regulating the mitochondrial or intrinsic pathway of cell death. The BCL2 proteins are divided into prosurvival, proapoptotic, and BH3-only proteins. The balance between the three classes of proteins regulates the intrinsic or mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Defects in the expression or regulation of these proteins have been reported in different cancers. In fact the overexpression of prosurvival members of the BCL2 family has been associated with the resistance of various cancers to current therapies. Currently inhibitors are being developed for prosurvival members of the BCL2 proteins, some of which like ABT-199 have shown a very good response in clinical trials. The early promise shown by these inhibitors in clinical trials has opened avenues for therapeutic intervention of a number of highly resistant cancers, alone or in combination with other currently available therapies.

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Acknowledgments

Abid Mattoo acknowledges the support from Intramural research program of the National Cancer Institute at NIH. Abid Mattoo also thanks Dr. Tej Pandita, Director, Department for Radiation Oncology, Methodist hospital Research institute for research support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Hamida Thakur

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA

    Abid R. Mattoo

Authors
  1. Hamida Thakur
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  2. Abid R. Mattoo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abid R. Mattoo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR - Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India

    Gunjan Arora

  2. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Andaleeb Sajid

  3. CSIR - Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India

    Vipin Chandra Kalia

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Thakur, H., Mattoo, A.R. (2017). BCL-2 Proteins and their Role in Cancer Resistance. In: Arora, G., Sajid, A., Kalia, V. (eds) Drug Resistance in Bacteria, Fungi, Malaria, and Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48683-3_21

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