Accumulated evidence supports that the ubiquitin proteasome pathway (UPP) plays a crucial role in protein metabolism implicated in the regulation of many biological processes such as cell cycle control, DNA damage response, apoptosis, and so on. Therefore, alterations for the ubiquitin proteasome signaling or functional impairments for the ubiquitin proteasome components are involved in the etiology of many diseases, particularly in cancer development. In this minireview, we first give a brief outline for the ubiquitin proteasome pathway, we then discuss with focus for the ubiquitin proteasome pathway in the regulation of cell cycle control and DNA damage response, the relevance for the altered regulation of these signaling pathways in tumorigenesis is also reviewed. We finally assess and summarize the advancement for targeting the ubiquitin proteasome pathway in cancer therapy. A better understanding of the biological functions underlying ubiquitin regulatory mechanisms would provide us a wider prospective on cancer treatment.
Keywords: DNA damage response; Ubiquitin proteasome pathway; cell cycle; tumorigenesis; ubiquitination.