Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation in Cancer Signaling, Metabolism and Anticancer Therapy

Abstract

The cancer state is thought to be maintained by genetic and epigenetic changes that drive a cancer-promoting gene expression program. However, recent results show that cellular states can be also stably maintained by the reorganization of cell structure leading to the formation of biological condensates via the process of liquid–liquid phase separation. Here, we review the data showing cancer-specific biological condensates initiated by mutant oncoproteins, RNA-binding proteins, or lincRNAs that regulate oncogenic gene expression programs and cancer metabolism. Effective anticancer drugs may specifically partition into oncogenic biological condensates (OBC).