The helicase protein DHX29 promotes translation initiation, cell proliferation, and tumorigenesis.

Parsyan, Armen; Shahbazian, David; Martineau, Yvan; Petroulakis, Emmanuel; Alain, Tommy; Larsson, Ola; Mathonnet, Geraldine; Tettweiler, Gritta et al. · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2009

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Translational control plays an important role in cell growth and tumorigenesis. Cap-dependent translation initiation of mammalian mRNAs with structured 5'UTRs requires the DExH-box protein, DHX29, in vitro. Here we show that DHX29 is important for translation in vivo. Down-regulation of DHX29 leads to impaired translation, resulting in disassembly of polysomes and accumulation of mRNA-free 80S monomers. DHX29 depletion also impedes cancer cell growth in culture and in xenografts. Thus, DHX29 is a bona fide translation initiation factor that potentially can be exploited as a target to inhibit cancer cell growth.

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