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Nuclear Receptor Coregulators in Cancer Biology

¹ Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas and ² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Institute of Coregulator Biology, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia

Requests for reprints: Bert W. O'Malley, BCM502, Room M613, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030; or Rakesh Kumar, 2300 Eye Street, NW, Suite 530, Washington, DC 20037.

Coregulators (coactivators and corepressors) occupy the driving seat for actions of all nuclear receptors, and consequently, selective receptor modulator drugs. The potency and selectivity for subreactions of transcription reside in the coactivators, and thus, they are critically important for tissue-selective gene function. Each tissue has a "quantitative finger print" of coactivators based on its relative inherited concentrations of these molecules. When the cellular concentration of a coactivator is altered, genetic dysfunction usually leads to a pathologic outcome. For example, many cancers overexpress "growth coactivators." In this way, the cancer cell can hijack these coactivator molecules to drive proliferation and metastasis. The present review contains summaries of selective coactivators and corepressors that have been demonstrated to play important roles in the malignant process and emphasizes their importance for future therapeutic interventions. [Cancer Res 2009;69(21):8217–22]