DISCOVERIES (2013, Oct-Dec), 1(1): e5 DOI: 10.15190/d.2013.5 FOXO proteins control critical cellular decisions and cellular fate REVIEW Article Critical physiological and pathological functions of Forkhead Box O tumor suppressors Georgiana R. Dumitrascu1 and Octavian Bucur2,* 1“Victor Babes” National Institute of Pathology and Biomedical Sciences, Bucharest, Romania; 2Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; Correspondence to: Dr. Octavian Bucur, Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. Phone: +1 617 667 4314; E-mail:
[email protected]. Citation: Dumitrascu GR, Bucur O. Critical physiological and pathological functions of Forkhead Box O tumor suppressors. Discoveries 2013, Oct-Dec; 1(1): e5. DOI: 10.15190/d.2013.5 ABSTRACT death (Puma); Bcl-2/adenovirus E1B 19 kDa-interacting The Forkhead box, subclass O (FOXO) proteins protein (bNIP3); PTEN – induced kinase 1 (Pink1); are critical transcription factors, ubiquitously peroxisome proliferative activated receptor-gama expressed in the human body. These proteins are (PGC1); glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase); phosphor- characterized by a remarkable functional diversity, enol-pyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK); Agouti-related protein (Agrp); neuropeptide Y (NpY); pro-opiomelan- being involved in cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, ocortin (POMC); glycogenolytic gene glucose-6- oxidative detoxification, DNA damage repair, stem phosphatase (G6pc); manganese superoxide dismutase cell maintenance, cell differentiation, cell (MnSOD); CBP/p300-interacting trans-activator with metabolism, angiogenesis, cardiac development, ED-rich tail 2 (Cited 2); mixed lineage leukemia aging and others. In addition, FOXO have critical (MLL); L-selectin (CD62L); activation-induced cytidine implications in both normal and cancer stem cell deaminase (AID); biology.