The Effect of Degrading the Transcription Factor NF-KB Subunit Proteins on NF-KB' s Oncological Activity

Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) is a transcription factor that becomes functional when any two of its five component proteins (p50, p52, p65, c-Rel, and RelB) join together. NF-κB plays an important role in bringing out cell proliferation, or cell growth. When NF-κB malfunctions and becomes hyperactive, excessive NF-κB activity promotes abnormally high cell growth, which is a symptom of cancer. Because of its tie to cancer, NF-κB is commonly subjected to modification to curb cancer growth. In this project, each component protein of NF- κB was degraded via a method called RNAi to see if it would have any negative influence on NF-κB activity of glioblastoma, or brain cancer, cells. It was found that degradation of p50 and p52 significantly reduced NF-κB activity while the remaining three failed to produce significant reduction.