[Biological Function of The Small G Protein Rap]

Rap has different biological functions on intracellular signaling pathways, such as regulating cell polarity, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, cell adhesion and cell movement. Furthermore, at tissue and organ level, Rap controls the establishment of neural polarity, synaptic growth, synaptic plasticity, neuronal migration and so on. Rap belongs to Ras family which contains two subtypes, Rap1 and Rap2. By binding GTP or GDP Rap transform between active or inactive state, and plays an important role as a molecular switch. Moreover, in the signal pathway of tumor, Rap inhibits cell transformation induced by the oncogene Ras, therefore inhibits the proliferation, invasion and migration of certain cancer cells by interacting with its downstream target molecules. In this review, we summarized the biological functions of Rap and discussed It's significance in cancer therapy and drug treatment of neurological diseases.