Abstract
Wnt proteins are a large family of secreted glycoproteins. Wnt proteins bind to the Frizzled receptors and LRP5/6 co-receptors, and through stabilizing the critical mediator β-catenin, initiate a complex signaling cascade that plays an important role in regulating cell proliferation and differentiation. Deregulation of the canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, mostly by inactivating mutations of the APC tumor suppressor, or oncogenic mutations of β-catenin, has been implicated in colorectal tumorigenesis. Although oncogenic mutations of β-catenin have only been discovered in a small fraction of non-colon cancers, elevated levels of β- catenin protein, a hallmark of activated canonical Wnt pathway, have been observed in most common forms of human malignancies, indicating that activation of this pathway may play an important role in tumor development. Over the past 15 years, our understanding of this signaling pathway has significantly improved with the identification of key regulatory proteins and the important downstream targets of β-catenin/Tcf transactivation complex. Given the fact that Wnt/β-catenin signaling is tightly regulated at multiple cellular levels, the pathway itself offers ample targeting nodal points for cancer drug development. In this review, we discuss some of the strategies that are being used or can be explored to target key components of the Wnt/β- catenin signaling pathway in rational cancer drug discovery.
Keywords: wnt, catenin, signal transduction, tumorigenesis, cancer targets, high throughput screening
Current Cancer Drug Targets
Title: Wnt / β-Catenin Signaling Pathway as Novel Cancer Drug Targets
Volume: 4 Issue: 8
Author(s): Hue H. Luu, Ruiwen Zhang, Rex C. Haydon, Elizabeth Rayburn, Quan Kang, Weike Si, Jong Kyung Park, Hui Wang, Ying Peng, Wei Jiang and Tong- Chuan He
Affiliation:
Keywords: wnt, catenin, signal transduction, tumorigenesis, cancer targets, high throughput screening
Abstract: Wnt proteins are a large family of secreted glycoproteins. Wnt proteins bind to the Frizzled receptors and LRP5/6 co-receptors, and through stabilizing the critical mediator β-catenin, initiate a complex signaling cascade that plays an important role in regulating cell proliferation and differentiation. Deregulation of the canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, mostly by inactivating mutations of the APC tumor suppressor, or oncogenic mutations of β-catenin, has been implicated in colorectal tumorigenesis. Although oncogenic mutations of β-catenin have only been discovered in a small fraction of non-colon cancers, elevated levels of β- catenin protein, a hallmark of activated canonical Wnt pathway, have been observed in most common forms of human malignancies, indicating that activation of this pathway may play an important role in tumor development. Over the past 15 years, our understanding of this signaling pathway has significantly improved with the identification of key regulatory proteins and the important downstream targets of β-catenin/Tcf transactivation complex. Given the fact that Wnt/β-catenin signaling is tightly regulated at multiple cellular levels, the pathway itself offers ample targeting nodal points for cancer drug development. In this review, we discuss some of the strategies that are being used or can be explored to target key components of the Wnt/β- catenin signaling pathway in rational cancer drug discovery.
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Cite this article as:
Luu H. Hue, Zhang Ruiwen, Haydon C. Rex, Rayburn Elizabeth, Kang Quan, Si Weike, Park Kyung Jong, Wang Hui, Peng Ying, Jiang Wei and He Chuan Tong-, Wnt / β-Catenin Signaling Pathway as Novel Cancer Drug Targets, Current Cancer Drug Targets 2004; 4 (8) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568009043332709
DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568009043332709 |
Print ISSN 1568-0096 |
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher |
Online ISSN 1873-5576 |
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