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Aberrant N-cadherin expression in cancer
oleh: Zhan-Qi Cao, Zhi Wang, Ping Leng
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | Elsevier 2019-10-01 |
Deskripsi
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.