Cell Cycle and Cell Cycle Targeting Cancer Therapies

Dear Colleagues,

Stringent control of the cell division cycle is a prerequisite for the precise formation of organs during metazoan development and is vital in adults for tissue renewal and tissue repair. In turn, cell cycle deregulation leads to diseases including Alzheimer’s and cancer. Understanding the molecular events involved in the control of cell division cycle is of fundamental relevance to understanding these processes.

While the principle of cell cycle control is a textbook matter, detailed studies continue to yield unexpected discoveries that challenge established textbook views. For example, cell cycle control appears to substantially differ between lineage-committed and pluripotent cells, with questions on how these differences come about molecularly, and whether they are the consequence or the cause of pluripotency and/or its dissolution. How the cell cycle machinery integrates information from the plethora of events known to control cell proliferation, how cell cycle exit into quiescence is facilitated, and to what extent events that facilitate quiescence are involved in driving permanent, irreversible exit, typified by senescence and terminal differentiation, lack definite answers.

There is now firm recognition that cell cycle defects cause genomic instability and determine therapy response in cancer, and hence contribute to cancer outcomes in ways beyond the deregulated production of cell progeny. A growing number of therapeutic strategies seek to rectify or exploit cell cycle defects for cancer treatment. For example, pharmacological inhibitors targeting the cell cycle-regulatory CDK4/6 kinases are transforming the treatment of hormone-dependent breast cancer, yet strategies involving these inhibitors have not yet been successful in other cancer types. Genomic and pharmacological screens highlight vulnerabilities caused by cell cycle defects and checkpoint overuse with the promise of selective therapeutic potential in cancers with these specific features. This Special Issue seeks to capture evolving novel insight into cell cycle control, to showcase new technologies that drive discovery in cell cycle research and to highlight opportunities and challenges of cell-cycle-targeting strategies for the rational treatment of diseases including cancer.

Prof. Dr. Sibylle Mittnacht
Guest Editor

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