Oncogenic nature of a novel mutant AATF and its interactome existing within human cancer cells

Since apoptosis presents a natural defense in cancer development, the anti-apoptotic factor AATF/Che-1 has emerged as a crucial Epigenomic-Switch'. We have tried to understand the double-edged nature of AATF, showing for the first time the conspicuous existence of an aberrant AATF/Che-1 transcriptome encoding for 23kDa mutant AATF protein, which evolves its unique interactome within human cancer cells derived from different tissue origins. This mutant AATF along with its interactome consisting of SP1, DNMT3B and Par-4 ensures cancer cell DNA methylation required for down-regulation of tumor suppressor genes. Hence, the proposed mutant AATF interactome-based pathway can have the inherent ability to ensure human cells become and remain cancerous.