» Articles » PMID: 34360603

New Insights into Cancer Targeted Therapy: Nodal and Cripto-1 As Attractive Candidates

Overview
Journal Int J Mol Sci
Publisher MDPI
Date 2021 Aug 7
PMID 34360603
Citations 2
Authors
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

The transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling is fundamental for correct embryonic development. However, alterations of this pathway have been correlated with oncogenesis, tumor progression and sustaining of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Cripto-1 (CR-1) and Nodal are two embryonic proteins involved in TGF-β signaling. Their expression is almost undetectable in terminally differentiated cells, but they are often re-expressed in tumor cells, especially in CSCs. Moreover, cancer cells that show high levels of CR-1 and/or Nodal display more aggressive phenotypes in vitro, while in vivo their expression correlates with a worse prognosis in several human cancers. The ability to target CSCs still represents an unmet medical need for the complete eradication of certain types of tumors. Given the prognostic role and the selective expression of CR-1 and Nodal on cancer cells, they represent archetypes for targeted therapy. The aim of this review is to clarify the role of CR-1 and Nodal in cancer stem populations and to summarize the current therapeutic strategy to target CSCs using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) or other molecular tools to interfere with these two proteins.

Citing Articles

Profiling and targeting cancer stem cell signaling pathways for cancer therapeutics.

Borlongan M, Wang H Front Cell Dev Biol. 2023; 11:1125174.

PMID: 37305676 PMC: 10247984. DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1125174.


Immune-related gene signature associates with immune landscape and predicts prognosis accurately in patients with Wilms tumour.

Tian X, Xiang B, Jin L, Mi T, Wang J, Zhanghuang C Front Immunol. 2022; 13:920666.

PMID: 36172369 PMC: 9510599. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.920666.

References
1.
Zhang Y, Mi X, Song Z, Li Y, YingShi , Niu J . Cripto-1 promotes resistance to drug-induced apoptosis by activating the TAK-1/NF-κB/survivin signaling pathway. Biomed Pharmacother. 2018; 104:729-737. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2018.05.063. View

2.
Aykul S, Parenti A, Chu K, Reske J, Floer M, Ralston A . Biochemical and Cellular Analysis Reveals Ligand Binding Specificities, a Molecular Basis for Ligand Recognition, and Membrane Association-dependent Activities of Cripto-1 and Cryptic. J Biol Chem. 2017; 292(10):4138-4151. PMC: 5354514. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M116.747501. View

3.
Harpelunde Poulsen K, Nielsen J, Gronkaer Toft B, Joensen U, Rasmussen L, Blomberg Jensen M . Influence of Nodal signalling on pluripotency factor expression, tumour cell proliferation and cisplatin-sensitivity in testicular germ cell tumours. BMC Cancer. 2020; 20(1):349. PMC: 7181506. DOI: 10.1186/s12885-020-06820-6. View

4.
Gong W, Sun B, Sun H, Zhao X, Zhang D, Liu T . Nodal signaling activates the Smad2/3 pathway to regulate stem cell-like properties in breast cancer cells. Am J Cancer Res. 2017; 7(3):503-517. PMC: 5385639. View

5.
Arcaro A, Aubert M, Espinosa del Hierro M, Khanzada U, Angelidou S, Tetley T . Critical role for lipid raft-associated Src kinases in activation of PI3K-Akt signalling. Cell Signal. 2007; 19(5):1081-92. DOI: 10.1016/j.cellsig.2006.12.003. View