The role of annexin A3 playing in cancers.

Annexin family proteins are a well-known multigene family of Ca(2+)-regulated phospholipid- and membrane-binding proteins. As one of the annexin family genes/proteins, accumulated researches have begun to reveal that annexin A3 (Anxa3) exhibits important roles in tumor development, metastasis and drug resistance. The summarized research evidences in recent years indicate Anxa3 might specifically functionalize either as a tumor suppressor or as a tumor promoter candidate for different cancers depending on the types of tumor cells and tissues. The up-regulation of Anxa3 was found to be correlated with enhanced drug resistance of ovarian cancer, to promote the developments of colorectal adenocarcinoma and pancreatic carcinoma, and to facilitate the metastases of lung adenocarcinoma and hepatocarcinoma; meanwhile, the decreased Anxa3 expressions was negatively correlated with the developments of prostatic carcinoma and renal carcinoma. It is conceivable that Anxa3 could be regarded as a target for therapeutic intervention and a biological indicator for tumor development, invasion and metastasis as well as for the prognosis of tumor patients.

Novel insight into the role of GAPDH playing in tumor.

The role of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) being consistently regarded as the main housekeeping gene and reference gene/protein for expression quantification in tumors has been gradually questioned and challenged by accumulated experiment evidence. The current review notified that the GAPDH expression was deregulated in lung cancer, renal cancer, breast cancer, gastric cancer, glioma, liver cancer, colorectal cancer, melanoma, prostatic cancer, pancreatic cancer and bladder cancer. Interestingly, GAPDH was commonly up-regulated in a variety of types of cancer, which was revealed to be potentially required for the cancer cell growth and tumor formation. The relevant mechanisms were also discussed in current review. This work might provide useful insights for future studies on GAPDH in tumors.

The association of annexin A2 and cancers.

Annexins are a group of calcium- and phospholipid-dependent proteins. As a member of the annexin, annexin A2 (Anxa2) is widely distributed in nucleus, cytoplasm and extracellular surface and mainly expressed in human endothelial cells, mononuclear cells, macrophages, marrow cells and some tumor cells. Accumulated evidences indicated that Anxa2 deregulation was associated with the occurrence, invasion and metastasis of cancers. Anxa2 up-regulation was related to the development, invasion, metastasis and drug resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, acute promyelocytic leukemia and renal cell carcinoma; while Anxa2 down-regulation was associated with prostate cancer, esophageal squamous carcinoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma and sinonasal adenocarcinoma. The association between Anxa2 and malignant tumors as well as the potential action mechanisms were summarized in current work. Anxa2 might be used as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of certain tumors.

Proteomic research progress in lymphatic metastases of cancers.

Lymph node metastasis (LNM) is recognised as an important factor involved in malignant tumour progression by interfering with a favourable prognosis. It is involved in a variety of cancers. Proteins are believed to play important roles in the LNM of cancers. The rapid achievements of state-of-the-art proteomic techniques have emerged as the key technologies successfully applied to identify markers for cancers at high-throughput level by providing novel targets and creating possible therapeutic interventions in cancer research. This review summarises recent progress in proteomic research in hepatocarcinoma, gastric cancer, oesophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer. Actin, heat-shock proteins (HSPs), annexins, cytokeratin 10 (CK10), CK19, protein gene product 9.5 (PGP9.5) and protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) are the most common proteins in lymphatic metastases of cancers revealed by proteomic and protein functional studies. Other protein candidates specifically associated with LNMs of certain cancers are also summarised and discussed.