Figure 1From: Proteotoxic crisis, the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and cancer therapyProteotoxic crisis in cancer cells. (A) In normal cells, the natural load of degradation substrates on the left is in balance with the capacity of the cellular ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), signified by the proteasome on the right. (B) In cancer cells, the load is increased due to expression of mutant proteins and/or expression of excess proteins due to aneuploidy. This results in an imbalance where the degradation load exceeds the capacity of the UPS.Back to article page