Ju Zhang, Xiaomin Lou, Shangbin Yang, Shun He, Lei Yang, Mei Liu, Hongxia Zhu, Qiang Shan, Siyuan Su, Qimin Zhan, Ningzhi Xu, Siqi Liu

Cancer Letters

Abstract

Suppression of c-Myc is likely to induce cellular senescence in many tumors with unclear mechanisms. A proteomics survey indicated that high levels of BCL2-associated athanogene 2 (BAG2) were found in response to c-Myc repression in TRE293 cells. This observation led to the investigation into the role of BAG2 in c-Myc-induced senescence. The association of the c-Myc/SP1 complex with the BAG2 promoter verified the role of c-Myc/SP1 in regulating BAG2 transcription. Furthermore, high levels of BAG2 were found to induce p21(CIP1)-dependent senescence and subsequent carcinogenetic arrest, suggesting its possible role as an indirect activator of the p21(CIP1) pathway.