PTEN in DNA damage repair

The ability of DNA repair in a cell is vital to its genomic integrity and thus to the normal functioning of an organism. Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a well-established tumor suppressor gene that induces apoptosis and controls cell growth by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT pathway. In various human cancers, PTEN is frequently found to be mutated, deleted, or epigenetically silenced. Recent new findings have demonstrated that PTEN also plays a critical role in DNA damage repair and DNA damage response. This review summarizes the recent progress in the function of PTEN in DNA damage repair, especially in double strand break repair and nucleotide excision repair. In addition, we will discuss the role of PTEN in DNA damage response through its interaction with the Chk1 and p53 pathways. We will focus on the newly discovered mechanisms and the potential implications in cancer prevention and therapeutic intervention.