Velado-Eguskiza Aitziber, Gomez-Santos Laura, Badiola Iker, Sáez Francisco José, Alonso Edurne
Department of Cell Biology and Histology, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain.
Nanokide Therapeutics SL, 48940 Leioa, Spain.
Cancers (Basel). 2022 Mar 23;14(7):1633. doi: 10.3390/cancers14071633.
Testicular Germ Cell Tumours (TGCT) are widely considered a "curable cancer" due to their exceptionally high survival rate, even if it is reduced by many years after the diagnosis due to metastases and relapses. The most common therapeutic approach to TGCTs has not changed in the last 50 years despite its multiple long-term side effects, and because it is the most common malignancy in young Caucasian men, much research is needed to better the quality of life of the many survivors. Proprotein Convertases (PC) are nine serine proteases responsible for the maturation of inactive proproteins with many diverse functions. Alterations in their expression have been associated with various diseases, including cancer and inflammation. Many of their substrates are adhesion molecules, metalloproteases and proinflammatory molecules, all of which are involved in tumour development. Inhibition of certain convertases has also been shown to slow tumour formation, demonstrating their involvement in this process. Considering the very established link between PCs and inflammation-related malignancies and the recent studies carried out into the immune microenvironment of TGCTs, the study of the involvement of PCs in testicular cancer may open up avenues for being both a biomarker for diagnosis and a therapeutic target.
睾丸生殖细胞肿瘤（TGCT）因其极高的生存率而被广泛认为是一种“可治愈的癌症”，即便在诊断后由于转移和复发导致生存期缩短多年。尽管TGCT最常见的治疗方法存在多种长期副作用，但在过去50年里并未改变。而且由于它是年轻白种男性中最常见的恶性肿瘤，所以需要进行大量研究以改善众多幸存者的生活质量。前蛋白转化酶（PC）是九种丝氨酸蛋白酶，负责使具有多种不同功能的无活性前体蛋白成熟。它们表达的改变与包括癌症和炎症在内的多种疾病有关。它们的许多底物是黏附分子、金属蛋白酶和促炎分子，所有这些都参与肿瘤发展。抑制某些转化酶也已显示可减缓肿瘤形成，表明它们参与了这一过程。考虑到PC与炎症相关恶性肿瘤之间已确立的联系以及最近对TGCT免疫微环境的研究，研究PC在睾丸癌中的作用可能为成为诊断生物标志物和治疗靶点开辟道路。
