The maintenance of genome integrity is essential for any organism survival and for the inheritance of traits to offspring. To the purpose, cells have developed a complex DNA repair system to defend the genetic information against both endogenous and exogenous sources of damage. Accordingly, multiple repair pathways can be aroused from the diverse forms of DNA lesions, which can be effective per se or via crosstalk with others to complete the whole DNA repair process. Deficiencies in DNA healing resulting in faulty repair and/or prolonged DNA damage can lead to genes mutations, chromosome rearrangements, genomic instability, and finally carcinogenesis and/or cancer progression. Although it might seem paradoxical, at the same time such defects in DNA repair pathways may have therapeutic implications for potential clinical practice. Here we provide an overview of the main DNA repair pathways, with special focus on the role played by homologous repair and the RAD51 recombinase protein in the cellular DNA damage response. We next discuss the recombinase structure and function per se and in combination with all its principal mediators and regulators. Finally, we conclude with an analysis of the manifold roles that RAD51 plays in carcinogenesis, cancer progression and anticancer drug resistance, and conclude this work with a survey of the most promising therapeutic strategies aimed at targeting RAD51 in experimental oncology.

中文翻译：

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Rad51和DNA修复在癌症中的作用：分子视角。

基因组完整性的维持对于任何生物的生存以及后代性状的继承都是至关重要的。为此，细胞已经开发出一种复杂的DNA修复系统，以保护遗传信息免受内源性和外源性损害。因此，可以从DNA损伤的多种形式中引起多种修复途径，其本身可以有效或通过与其他人的串扰来完成整个DNA修复过程。DNA修复缺陷导致修复失败和/或DNA损伤延长，可能导致基因突变，染色体重排，基因组不稳定，并最终导致癌变和/或癌症进展。尽管可能看起来很矛盾，但同时DNA修复途径中的此类缺陷可能对潜在的临床实践具有治疗意义。在这里，我们提供了主要DNA修复途径的概述，特别着重于同源修复和RAD51重组酶蛋白在细胞DNA损伤反应中的作用。接下来，我们将讨论重组酶的结构和功能本身，及其所有主要的介体和调节剂。最后，我们以RAD51在致癌性，癌症进展和抗癌药物耐药性中的多种作用进行了分析，并以针对RAD51在实验肿瘤学中的最有前景的治疗策略的调查结束了这项工作。接下来，我们将讨论重组酶的结构和功能本身，及其所有主要的介体和调节剂。最后，我们以RAD51在致癌性，癌症进展和抗癌药物耐药性中的多种作用进行了分析，并以针对RAD51在实验肿瘤学中的最有前景的治疗策略的调查结束了这项工作。接下来，我们将讨论重组酶的结构和功能本身，及其所有主要的介体和调节剂。最后，我们以RAD51在致癌性，癌症进展和抗癌药物耐药性中的多种作用进行了分析，并以针对RAD51在实验肿瘤学中的最有希望的治疗策略进行了调查来结束这项工作。