Final Report Summary - DEPREC (The Dependence Receptors notion: from a cell biology paradigm to anti-cancer targeted therapy)
Cell fate is determined by the cell interaction with its environment. These interactions are possible thanks to receptors expressed at the cell surface, receptors that act as “sensors” and constrain the cell to adapt its activity and its fate to extracellular signals. Among them there are the dependence receptors (DRs), which have the specificity to induce cell death if they are not bound by their respective ligands, creating a relationship of dependence between the cell expressing DR and the presence or not of the ligand in the cell microenvironment. We have hypothesized that this DR pro-apoptotic activity is a mechanism that determines and regulates the territories of migration/localization of cells during embryonic development. In this ERC project, we have provided a better understanding of the death pathways induced by these DRs, and have also demonstrated the implication of DRs in the regulation cancer progression. This work on cancer has led us to develop a promising anti-cancer therapy aiming at restoring apoptosis in cancer cells by DRs targeting.