2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Elucidation of the mechanisms that control aging and cancer by chromatin remodeling
Project/Area Number |
24501305
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
Section | 一般 |
Research Field |
Carcinogenesis
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Research Institution | Kyushu University |
Principal Investigator |
|
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
NAKAYAMA Keiichi 九州大学, 生体防御医学研究所, 教授 (80291508)
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Project Period (FY) |
2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
|
Keywords | 発がん / エピジェネティクス |
Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Cellular senescence of tissue stem cells are deeply involved in the onset of age-related diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. We found that the chromatin remodeling factor CHD8 binds to tumor suppressor protein p53 and inhibits p53-mediated apoptosis, which plays an important role in organogenesis during embryogenesis. We next revealed that CHD8 inhibits not only p53-induced apoptosis but also cellular senescence and exhibits potent transforming activity. More recently, CHD8 is identified as the most frequently mutated gene in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which creates a big sensation all over the world. Furthermore, we found that CHD8 is essential for maintenance of neural stem cells and mice heterozygous for CHD8 gene were found to manifest ASD-like phenotypes.
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Free Research Field |
分子生物学
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