A new chink in cancer’s armor: Unleashing cell death by selective PP5 inhibition

Serine/threonine protein phosphatases play a significant role in the survival and propagation of multiple cancers. In this issue of Cell Chemical Biology, Ahanin et al.1 demonstrate that protein phosphatase 5 (PP5) dephosphorylates and inactivates the cell death effector protein FADD independently of Hsp90, and they identify a selective PP5 inhibitor as a new therapeutic strategy for renal cancer.