UTP14A and colorectal cancer: This was confirmed by Hu et al., who found that UTP14a interacts with p53; overexpression of UTP14a could lead to p53 protein degradation, and knockdown of UTP14a could cause cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in HeLa cells.9 Zhang et al. 13 found that UTP14a is upregulated in human colorectal cancer tissues.