[c-MYC-mediated regulations in colorectal cancer].

In the majority of human tumors the oncogenic transcription factor c-MYC is deregulated and contributes to the formation of many biologically important tumor properties. These include the induction of cell cycle progression, transformation, genomic instability and immortalization. So far it was unclear which target genes of c-MYC mediate the effects. Using genome-wide approaches we identified a large number of c-MYC target genes. Subsequently, we characterized some target genes for their role in c-MYC-induced genomic instability and immortalization. The protein deacetylase SIRT1 was found to be an important mediator of c-MYC-induced immortalization. Using in situ analyses of colorectal cancer specimens we demonstrated that c-MYC is a regulator of the identified target genes in human tumors thus implicating their relevance for tumorigenesis in humans.