Advances in research on CLN3 gene and diseases / 中国癌症杂志

ABSTRACT

CLN3 gene product is an antiapoptotic membrane protein, the expressions of CLN3 in normal tissues and cells are at very low level. Juvenile-Batten disease is a neurodegenerative disease caused by accelerated apoptosis of photoreceptors and neurons resulting from deletion of 1.02 kb in the CLN3 gene. A number of observations showed that CLN3 mRNA and protein are overexpressed in a variety of human cancer cell lines. Blocking of CLN3 expression using an adenovirus-expressing antisense CLN3 inhibited growth and viability of cancer cells. CLN3 may regulate apoptosis through modulating ceramide synthesis or the expression of some down stream genes. More importantly, these results suggested that CLN3 is a novel molecular target for the etiology, progression and theraputics of cancer.