Chen Jin, Song Wenqiang, Amato Katherine
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, TN 37212, United States; Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Medicine; Department of Cancer Biology; Department of Cell and Developmental Biology; Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, United States.
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, TN 37212, United States; Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Medicine.
Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 2015 Feb;26(1):1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cytogfr.2014.05.001. Epub 2014 May 17.
Eph receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and their ligands, ephrins, play critical roles in development, tissue homeostasis, and cancer. Because Eph receptors are expressed in most adult stem cell niches and in many types of cancers, it has been long suspected that this family of RTKs may also regulate the function of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs). This review will focus on recent studies to elucidate the contribution of Eph/ephrin molecules in CSC self-renewal and tumorigenicity, as well as describe efforts to target these molecules in cancer. Because CSCs are often resistant to therapeutic intervention and have been shown to depend on Eph RTKs for self-renewal, targeting Eph receptors may hold promise for the treatment of drug-resistant cancers.
Eph受体酪氨酸激酶（RTKs）及其配体—— Ephrin，在发育、组织稳态和癌症中发挥着关键作用。由于Eph受体在大多数成体干细胞龛以及多种癌症类型中均有表达，长期以来人们一直怀疑这一RTK家族也可能调节癌症干细胞样细胞（CSCs）的功能。本综述将聚焦于近期的研究，以阐明Eph/Ephrin分子在CSC自我更新和致瘤性中的作用，同时描述针对癌症中这些分子的研究进展。由于CSCs通常对治疗干预具有抗性，并且已证明其自我更新依赖于Eph RTKs，因此靶向Eph受体可能为耐药性癌症的治疗带来希望。
