Posttranscriptional Orchestration of an Anti-Apoptotic Program by HuR

Kotb Abdelmohsen, Ashish Lal, Hyeon Ho Kim and Myriam Gorospe

volume 6 | issue 11

1 June 2007
Pages: 1288 - 1292

We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:

Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.

The RNA-binding protein HuR can stabilize and/or regulate the translation of target mRNAs, thereby affecting the cellular responses to immune, proliferative, and damaging agents. Here, we discuss emerging evidence that HuR elicits a broad anti-apoptotic function through its influence on the expression of multiple target mRNAs. HuR was previously shown to bind to the mRNA encoding the apoptosome inhibitor prothymosin α (ProTα) and enhanced its translation and cytoplasmic abundance. More recently, HuR was shown to increase the stability of a target mRNA encoding the pro-survival deacetylase SIRT1. The discovery that HuR likewise binds to and promotes the expression of mRNAs encoding Bcl-2 and Mcl-1, two major anti-apoptotic effectors, strongly supports HuR’s role as a key upstream coordinator of a constitutive pro-survival program.

Authors

Kotb Abdelmohsen

Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Institute on Aging-IRP, National Institutes of Health; Baltimore, Maryland USA

Ashish Lal

Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Institute on Aging-IRP, National Institutes of Health; Baltimore, Maryland USA

Hyeon Ho Kim

National Institutes of Health; Baltimore, MD

Myriam Gorospe