小G蛋白Rap的信号通路与生物学功能

Rap在细胞内控制着许多重要的信号通路,这些通路与细胞极性的形成、细胞增殖、分化和癌变、细胞黏附和运动等重要的生物功能密切相关,并进一步在组织器官水平影响一些重要的生理功能,如神经极性的建立、神经突触生长、突触可塑性和神经元迁移等。Rap属于Ras家族,含有Rap1和Rap2两个亚类。Rap通过结合GTP或GDP,在激活与失活两种状态之间切换,从而发挥分子开关的功能。此外,Rap在癌症的发生和发展过程中也发挥着关键作用,它可抑制癌基因Ras诱导的细胞转化;还可通过与其下游靶分子的相互作用,作为细胞信号通路上的一个开关分子诱导细胞恶性转化。本文对上述Rap的生物学功能做了概括总结,并在此基础之上探究Rap及受其调控的蛋白质对肿瘤和神经系统疾病的药物开发和治疗的重要意义。

Biological Function of The Small G Protein Rap

Rap has different biological functions on intracellular signaling pathways,such as regulating cell polarity,cell proliferation,cell differentiation,cell adhesion and cell movement.Furthermore,at tissue and organ level,Rap controls the establishment of neural polarity,synaptic growth,synaptic plas-ticity,neuronal migration and so on.Rap belongs to Ras family which contains two subtypes,Rap1 and Rap2.By binding GTP or GDP Rap transform between active or inactive state,and plays an important role as a molecular switch.Moreover,in the signal pathway of tumor,Rap inhibits cell transformation in-duced by the oncogene Ras,therefore inhibits the proliferation,invasion and migration of certain cancer cells by interacting with its downstream target molecules.In this review,we summarized the biological functions of Rap and discussed It's significance in cancer therapy and drug treatment of neurological disea-ses.