Abstract
Yin Yang 1 (YY1), a dual function transcription factor, is known to regulate transcriptional activation and repression of many genes associated with multiple cellular processes including cellular differentiation, DNA repair, autophagy, cell survival vs. apoptosis, and cell division. Owing to its role in processes that upon deregulation are linked to malignant transformation, YY1 has been implicated as a major driver of many cancers. While a large body of evidence supports the role of YY1 as a tumor promoter, recent reports indicated that YY1 also functions as a tumor suppressor. The mechanism by which YY1 brings out opposing outcome in tumor growth vs. suppression is not completely clear and some of the recent reports have provided significant insight into this. Likewise, the mechanism by which YY1 functions both as a transcriptional activator and repressor is not completely clear. It is likely that the proteins with which YY1 interacts might determine its function as an activator or repressor of transcription as well as its role as a tumor suppressor or promoter. Hence, a collection of YY1-protein interactions in the context of different cancers would help us gain an insight into how YY1 promotes or suppresses cancers. This review focuses on the YY1 interacting partners and its target genes in different cancer models. Finally, we discuss the possibility of therapeutically targeting the YY1 in cancers where it functions as a tumor promoter.
Highlights
Yin Yang 1 (YY1) ( called as ∂ transcription factor, nuclear factor-E1 (NF-E1), INO80 complex subunit S and upstream control region binding protein) is an evolutionarily conserved C2H2 zinc finger containing multi domain transcription factor with several functions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
YY1 is ubiquitously expressed in human tissues and controls various cellular mechanisms including transcriptional regulation, cell proliferation, DNA repair, chromatin modeling, apoptosis, autophagy, X-chromosome inactivation, recruitment of Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins and epigenetic modifications [1, 2, 10,11,12,13]
While YY1 has been shown to play a key role in the progression of many cancers, the mechanism by which YY1 contributes to tumor growth differs in different cancers by activating or repressing various genes in a cancer specific manner
Summary
Yin Yang 1 (YY1) ( called as ∂ transcription factor, nuclear factor-E1 (NF-E1), INO80 complex subunit S and upstream control region binding protein) is an evolutionarily conserved C2H2 zinc finger containing multi domain transcription factor with several functions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. That the opposing roles of YY1 as tumor promoter vs tumor suppressor depend on the cancer type and its interacting partners (Table 3) by regulating the expression or repression of several genes as well as non-coding RNAs including long non-coding RNAs (lnc) and several microRNAs (miRNAs).
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