The emerging role of WISP proteins in tumorigenesis and cancer therapy

Accumulated evidence has demonstrated that WNT1 inducible signaling pathway protein (WISP) genes, which belong to members of the CCN growth factor family, play a pivotal role in tumorigenesis and progression of a broad spectrum of human cancers. Mounting studies have identified that WISP proteins (WISP1-3) exert different biological functions in various human malignancies. Emerging evidence indicates that WISP proteins are critically involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and metastasis in cancers. Because the understanding of a direct function of WISP proteins in cancer development and progression has begun to emerge, in this review article, we describe the physiological function of WISP proteins in a variety of human cancers. Moreover, we highlight the current understanding of how the WISP protein is involved in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Furthermore, we discuss that targeting WISP proteins could be a promising strategy for the treatment of human cancers. Hence, the regulation of WISP proteins could improve treatments for cancer patients.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Journal of Translational Medicine

• Publication date

  2019-01-16

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1186/s12967-019-1769-7PMID 30651114PMCID 6335850
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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