Editor's Summary

5 April 2007

RANK key to metastasis

Experiments in a mouse prostate cancer model have identified a signalling pathway that stimulates the formation of metastases. The pathway is initiated when a protein ligand occupies a receptor known as RANK (receptor activator of nuclear factor B), and is dependent on the activation and nuclear translocation of IKK (IB kinase ). Once in the nucleus, activated IKK represses maspin gene transcription, whose product is well established as an inhibitor of cell migration and invasion in prostate and breast cancer. RANK may therefore be a general promoter of metastatic behaviour in prostate or mammary carcinoma cells.

Letter: Nuclear cytokine-activated IKK controls prostate cancer metastasis by repressing Maspin

Jun-Li Luo, Wei Tan, Jill M. Ricono, Olexandr Korchynskyi, Ming Zhang, Steven L. Gonias, David A. Cheresh & Michael Karin

doi:10.1038/nature05656

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