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Splicing and dicing apoptosis genes

Nature Biotechnology volume 17, pages 1064–1065 (1999)Cite this article

Remember those old television commercials advertising amazing kitchen gadgets that slice and dice vegetables and anything else inserted into them, like fingers? Well, don't be surprised if the next ad you see touts slicing up the mRNA products of apoptosis genes as a remedy for cancer, autoimmunity, and other ailments. In this issue, Nicholas Dean and colleagues1 demonstrate that antisense oligonucleotides complementary to selected regions of the bcl-x primary transcript can alter the normal course of mRNA splicing. This produced an apoptosis-inducing protein rather than the usual anti-apoptotic Bcl-x protein—effectively switching the phenotype of the bcl-x gene from cytoprotector to cytodestroyer.

bcl-x is a member of the Bcl-2 family of apoptosis regulators, a large group of genes that encode both blockers and inducers of cell death2. They normally control various aspects of programmed cell death; however, alterations in their expression are associated with diseases, making them targets for potential therapeutic intervention. bcl-x, for example, is inappropriately overexpressed in several common types of cancer, including substantial proportions of carcinomas of the colon, breast, lung, and prostate.

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Figure 1: Alternative splicing of bcl-X transcripts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Burnham Institute, La Jolla, 92037, CA

    John C. Reed

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  1. John C. Reed
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Reed, J. Splicing and dicing apoptosis genes. Nat Biotechnol 17, 1064–1065 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/15048

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