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Review|Volume 7, Issue 12|pp 1050—1065

DNA repair and aging: the impact of the p53 family

Sara Nicolai1, Antonello Rossi1, Nicola Di Daniele1, Gerry Melino1,2, Margherita Annicchiarico-Petruzzelli3, Giuseppe Raschellà4
  • 1Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy
  • 2Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, Hodgkin Building, Leicester University, Leicester LE1 9HN, UK
  • 3Biochemistry Laboratory, IDI-IRCCS, Rome 00100, Italy
  • 4ENEA Research Center Casaccia, Laboratory of Biosafety and Risk Assessment, 00123 Rome, Italy
Received: September 28, 2015Accepted: November 29, 2015Published: December 11, 2015
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100858

Copyright: © 2015 Nicolai et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Cells are constantly exposed to endogenous and exogenous factors that threaten the integrity of their DNA. The maintenance of genome stability is of paramount importance in the prevention of both cancer and aging processes. To deal with DNA damage, cells put into operation a sophisticated and coordinated mechanism, collectively known as DNA damage response (DDR). The DDR orchestrates different cellular processes, such as DNA repair, senescence and apoptosis. Among the key factors of the DDR, the related proteins p53, p63 and p73, all belonging to the same family of transcription factors, play multiple relevant roles. Indeed, the members of this family are directly involved in the induction of cell cycle arrest that is necessary to allow the cells to repair. Alternatively, they can promote cell death in case of prolonged or irreparable DNA damage. They also take part in a more direct task by modulating the expression of core factors involved in the process of DNA repair or by directly interacting with them. In this review we will analyze the fundamental roles of the p53 family in the aging process through their multifaceted function in DDR.