Sumoylation Pathway as Potential Therapeutic Targets in Cancer

Sumoylation is a covalent protein posttranslational modification that conjugates the small ubiquitin-like peptide SUMO to substrate. Sumoylation is critically implicated in multiple biological processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, senescence and apoptosis, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that dysregulation of sumoylation has been implicated in tumorigenesis and different types of cancer were found to be addicted to functional sumoylation pathway. The potential role for sumoylation as a therapeutic target in caner is emerging. In this review, we summarize current knowledge regarding the involvement of sumoylation in genome stability and DNA damage response. We will further discuss the therapeutic potential of sumoylation as synthetic lethal partner and as a key signaling pathway in cancer stem cells.