Yang Yang, Yang Jing-Jing, Tao Hui, Jin Wei-Sen
Clinical College of General Hospital of Armed Police Forces, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China; Department of Anorectal, General Hospital of Armed Police Forces, Beijing 100039, China.
Department of Pharmacology, The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230601, China.
Food Chem Toxicol. 2014 Dec;74:14-9. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2014.08.013. Epub 2014 Sep 2.
Colorectal cancer is a major health problem worldwide. Aberrant activation of the Wingless-type mouse mammary tumor virus integration site family(Wnt)/β-catenin signaling pathway is the most common and initial alteration in sporadic colorectal tumors. Numerous experimental studies have indicated that β-catenin is a key regulator of colorectal cancer. Indeed, β-catenin activity was shown to designate colon cancer stem cells (CSC) and is, therefore, an attractive target for new therapeutic agents. Thus, it is necessary to further understand its biology and search for effective therapy. Here we review the current literature regarding the functions of β-catenin control of intestinal cell fate and proliferation. Further, we provide a brief commentary on our current understanding of the role that β-catenin plays in colorectal tumor. These results show that β-catenin may serve as a good diagnosis biomarker of early-stage tumor development and a novel potential therapeutic target for colon cancer.
结直肠癌是全球主要的健康问题。无翅型小鼠乳腺肿瘤病毒整合位点家族（Wnt）/β-连环蛋白信号通路的异常激活是散发性结直肠肿瘤中最常见和最初的改变。大量实验研究表明，β-连环蛋白是结直肠癌的关键调节因子。事实上，β-连环蛋白活性被证明可标记结肠癌干细胞（CSC），因此是新型治疗药物的一个有吸引力的靶点。因此，有必要进一步了解其生物学特性并寻找有效的治疗方法。在此，我们综述了关于β-连环蛋白对肠道细胞命运和增殖控制功能的当前文献。此外，我们简要评论了目前对β-连环蛋白在结直肠肿瘤中作用的理解。这些结果表明，β-连环蛋白可能作为早期肿瘤发展的良好诊断生物标志物以及结肠癌的新型潜在治疗靶点。
