Progranulin and its biological effects in cancer - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

Progranulin and its biological effects in cancer

Fabian Arechavaleta-Velasco et al. Med Oncol. 2017.

Abstract

Cancer cells have defects in regulatory mechanisms that usually control cell proliferation and homeostasis. Different cancer cells share crucial alterations in cell physiology, which lead to malignant growth. Tumorigenesis or tumor growth requires a series of events that include constant cell proliferation, promotion of metastasis and invasion, stimulation of angiogenesis, evasion of tumor suppressor factors, and avoidance of cell death pathways. All these events in tumor progression may be regulated by growth factors produced by normal or malignant cells. The growth factor progranulin has significant biological effects in different types of cancer. This protein is a regulator of tumorigenesis because it stimulates cell proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, malignant transformation, resistance to anticancer drugs, and immune evasion. This review focuses on the biological effects of progranulin in several cancer models and provides evidence that this growth factor should be considered as a potential biomarker and target in cancer treatment.

Keywords: Biomarker; Cancer; Progranulin.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they do not have conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Granulin Family. Granulins are small peptides derived from a larger precursor (PC cell-derived growth factor, granulin/epithein precursor, 88 kDa glycoprotein, proepithelin, acrogranin, or progranulin), which can be cleaved by several enzymes. PGRN cleavage releases seven full-length granulin domains (G, F, B, A, C, D, E) and one half-length paragranulin domain (P). Secretory leukocytes protease inhibitor (SLPI) or high-density lipoprotein/apolipoprotein A-1 (HDL-Apo A1) binding to the full-length PGRN prevents its proteolytic process.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Progranulin expression in cancer. Increased expression of PGRN has been detected in cancer tissue from different organs.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Biological effects of PGRN. Increased expression of PGRN promotes different responses that can lead to the development of cancer.

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