PUMA gene in cancer treatment

PUMA (p53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis) is a recently discovered Bcl-2 family member which could be rapidly induced by p53 and has strong pro-apoptotic effects.PUMA has attracted much attention in the research of life science.PUMA expression results in potent growth suppression of some cancer cells through induction of apoptosis.PUMA can also significantly sensitize some cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents and irradiation through induction of apoptosis.PUMA is potentially useful in gene therapy of tumor.But recently,researchers have also found that PUMA participates in the process of carcinogenesis and possessed important biological functions. Key words: Apoptosis;  Neoplasms;  Gene therapy;  PUMA gene