Title:The CXCL12-CXCR4 Signaling Axis Plays a Key Role in Cancer Metastasis and is a Potential Target for Developing Novel Therapeutics against Metastatic Cancer
Volume: 27
Issue: 33
关键词:
CXCL12,CXCR4,癌症转移,治疗,癌症治疗,信号轴。
摘要: Metastasis is the main cause of death in cancer patients; there is currently no effective
treatment for cancer metastasis. This is primarily due to our insufficient understanding of the metastatic
mechanisms in cancer. An increasing number of studies have shown that the C-X-C motif
chemokine Ligand 12 (CXCL12) is overexpressed in various tissues and organs. It is a key niche
factor that nurtures the pre-metastatic niches (tumorigenic soil) and recruits tumor cells (oncogenic
“seeds”) to these niches, thereby fostering cancer cell aggression and metastatic capabilities. However,
the C-X-C motif chemokine Receptor 4 (CXCR4) is aberrantly overexpressed in various cancer
stem/progenitor cells and functions as a CXCL12 receptor. CXCL12 activates CXCR4 as well as
multiple downstream multiple tumorigenic signaling pathways, promoting the expression of various
oncogenes. Activation of the CXCL12-CXCR4 signaling axis promotes Epithelial-Mesenchymal
Transition (EMT) and mobilization of cancer stem/progenitor cells to pre-metastatic niches. It also
nurtures cancer cells with high motility, invasion, and dissemination phenotypes, thereby escalating
multiple proximal or distal cancer metastasis; this results in poor patient prognosis. Based on this
evidence, recent studies have explored either CXCL12- or CXCR4-targeted anti-cancer therapeutics
and have achieved promising results in the preclinical trials. Further exploration of this new strategy
and its potent therapeutics effect against metastatic cancer through the targeting of the CXCL12-
CXCR4 signaling axis may lead to a novel therapy that can clean up the tumor microenvironment
(“soil”) and kill the cancer cells, particularly the cancer stem/progenitor cells (“seeds”), in cancer
patients. Ultimately, this approach has the potential to effectively treat metastatic cancer.