Aberrant N-cadherin expression in cancer

Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

Ping Leng¹  Zhi Wang²  Zhan-Qi Cao² 

[1] Corresponding author at: No. 16 Jiang Su Road, Department of Pharmacy, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao 266003, China.;Department of Pharmacy, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266003, China;

关键词: N-cadherin;    Cancer;    Aberrant expression;    Metastasis;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Neural (N)-cadherin is a calcium-dependent single-chain transmembrane glycoprotein that mediates homotypic and heterotypic cell-cell adhesion. As an important member of the cadherin family, N-cadherin plays an important role in the developmental and functional regulation of the nervous system, brain, heart, skeletal muscles, blood vessels and hematopoietic microenvironment. However, aberrant expression of N-cadherin has been found in many cancers, such as lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and squamous cell carcinoma. It is increasingly recognized that aberrant expression of N-cadherin is closely related to aspects of malignant tumor progression in humans, such as transformation, adhesion, apoptosis, angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis, suggesting that N-cadherin can be a therapeutic target for tumor invasion and metastasis. This minireview summarizes the diverse roles of N-cadherin in cancer progression and the regulatory factors that affect the expression of N-cadherin in cancer, findings that increase our awareness of the importance of developing new therapeutic agents targeting N-cadherin.

【 授权许可】

Unknown