Anti-tubulin drugs are life-saving chemotherapeutics that kill cancer cells by stabilizing or disrupting microtubules. Despite their clinical utility, the molecular mechanisms by which anti-tubulins cause apoptotic cell death remain poorly understood. It is now shown that microtubule disruption can inhibit anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins through an evolutionarily conserved signalling axis involving DEPDC1 (LET-99 in Caenorhabditis elegans) and JNK.
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Denning, D., Hirose, T. Anti-tubulins DEPendably induce apoptosis. Nat Cell Biol 16, 741–743 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb3012
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb3012
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