Department of Pharmacology, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Avenida Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, Mexico City 07360, Mexico.
Sensors (Basel). 2012;12(5):5986-95. doi: 10.3390/s120505986. Epub 2012 May 10.
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. New early tumor markers are needed to treat the disease at curable stages. In addition, new therapeutic targets are required to treat patients not responding to available treatments. Ion channels play major roles in health and disease, including cancer. Actually, several ion channels have been suggested as potential tumor markers and therapeutic targets for different types of malignancies. One of most studied ion channels in cancer is the voltage-gated potassium channel Eag1 (ether à go-go 1), which has a high potential to be used as a cancer biomarker. Eag1 is expressed in most human tumors, in contrast to its restricted distribution in healthy tissues. Several findings suggest Eag1 as a potential early marker for cervical, colon, and breast cancer. In addition, because Eag1 amplification/expression is associated with poor survival in leukemia, colon and ovarian cancer patients, it has also been proposed as a prognosis marker. Moreover, inhibition of either expression or activity of Eag1 leads to reduced proliferation of cancer cells, making Eag1 a potential anticancer target. Using Eag1 in cancer detection programs could help to reduce mortality from this disease.
癌症是全球主要的死亡原因。需要新的早期肿瘤标志物来治疗可治愈阶段的疾病。此外，还需要新的治疗靶点来治疗对现有治疗方法无反应的患者。离子通道在健康和疾病中（包括癌症）发挥着重要作用。实际上，已经有几种离子通道被提议作为不同类型恶性肿瘤的潜在肿瘤标志物和治疗靶点。在癌症中研究最多的离子通道之一是电压门控钾通道 Eag1（醚-à-go-go 1），它具有很高的潜力可作为癌症生物标志物。Eag1 在大多数人类肿瘤中表达，而在健康组织中则分布有限。有几项研究结果表明 Eag1 可作为宫颈癌、结肠癌和乳腺癌的潜在早期标志物。此外，由于 Eag1 的扩增/表达与白血病、结肠癌和卵巢癌患者的不良预后相关，因此它也被提议作为预后标志物。此外，抑制 Eag1 的表达或活性会导致癌细胞增殖减少，使 Eag1 成为一种潜在的抗癌靶点。在癌症检测计划中使用 Eag1 可以帮助降低这种疾病的死亡率。
