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Book Review |
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Polyamine Cell Signaling Jian-Ying Wang and Robert A. Casero, Jr. (Editors) Totowa, NJ: Humana 2006, 490 pp., illus., index, $159.00 ISBN: 1—58829-625-3 This collection of chapters represents a timely and authoritative summary of an important and rapidly expanding field. Polyamines play a key role in normal and neoplastic growth and have a wide variety of pleiotropic effects. Many signalling pathways are, therefore, influenced by polyamines. This volume, which covers topics in physiology, pharmacology and cancer research, provides a useful summary of this area and contains chapters written by many of the leading laboratories in the field. Three sections describe effects of signal transduction via polyamines on cell proliferation, apoptosis, carcinogenesis and cancer therapy, and cell motility and cell-cell interactions. A final section covers polyamine homeostasis and transport. This section contains excellent coverage of polyamine transport mechanisms, which are very well understood in bacteria but less well characterized in higher eukaryotes. Chapters by Poulin et al. and by Igarashi and Kashiwagi, who represent the two leading laboratories in this field, provide a helpful summary of the area. Contributions by Persson, Hanfrey and the Jänne laboratory describe the regulation of ornithine decarboxylase, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase and polyamine catabolism respectively. These aspects of polyamine homeostasis have been reviewed extensively but are very active areas of current research, and the chapters together provide a good overview of a complex and rapidly developing field. The section on cell motility and cell-cell interactions contains only three chapters. Although these are excellent in the areas that are covered, most notably that by Kurata and Nichols on the Kir channels, it is unfortunate that other important areas in which polyamines are known to contribute to ion channel regulation such as interactions with NMDA receptors are not represented. The role of polyamines in intestinal epithelial migration and cell-cell communication is however very well summarized in this section. The largest section of the book contains 11 chapters describing multiple aspects of the roles of polyamines in cell proliferation and hypertrophy. The vast range of such studies is well demonstrated by the fact that there are chapters on heart, breast, prostate, kidney and lung. Among other interesting components of this section, Woster summarizes some recent studies with polyamine analogs that have major promise as therapeutic agents, and Gilmour describes effects on chromatin structure and acetylation. This area and the sequence-specific DNA binding activity of polyamines described by Thomas and colleagues, as well as the ability of polyamines to alter expression of critical genes regulating cell division and growth arrest, which are covered in chapters by Byus and Wang, provide a lead to the second section in the book which has eight chapters more focused on cancer. Several chapters in this section discuss polyamines and apoptosis. This is an area in which there is still some discussion and confusion, but it is becoming apparent that both excess polyamines and a drug-induced reduction in polyamine content can lead to apoptotic cell death. Among other notable chapters, Nilson and Cleveland summarize their seminal studies on the role of ornithine decarboxylase in Myc-driven carcinogenesis, and Casero and colleagues review their work on polyamine catabolism and its role in disease and drug response. This section also contains an excellent summary of work developing DFMO, an ornithine decarboxylase inhibitor as a cancer chemopreventive agent by Gerner, a pioneer in this active area. Overall, I would strongly recommend this book to those already in the polyamine field and those who need an introduction to it. The editors have been very successful in getting a succinct and up-to-date review from many of the major participants in the field and in covering most of the key areas. The pace of discoveries in these areas continues to be brisk, but at present, this book is an excellent starting overview. Anthony E. Pegg Pennsylvania State University |
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Essays in Biochemistry volume 42: The
Biochemical Basis of the Health Effects of Exercise. A.J. M. Wagenmakers (Editor). London, UK: Portland Press, 2006, 214 pp., illus., index, $40.00. ISBN: 10 1 85578 159 X. The
Integrative Action of the Autonomic Nervous System: |
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