Department of Nutrition, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Biomolecules. 2022 Mar 22;12(4):483. doi: 10.3390/biom12040483.
Ghrelin, a hormone produced and secreted from the stomach, is prim arily known as an appetite stimulant. Recently, it has emerged as a potential regulator/biomarker of cancer progression. Inconsistent results on this subject make this body of literature difficult to interpret. Here, we attempt to identify commonalities in the relationships between ghrelin and various cancers, and summarize important considerations for future research. The main players in the ghrelin family axis are unacylated ghrelin (UAG), acylated ghrelin (AG), the enzyme ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT), and the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR). GOAT is responsible for the acylation of ghrelin, after which ghrelin can bind to the functional ghrelin receptor GHSR-1a to initiate the activation cascade. Splice variants of ghrelin also exist, with the most prominent being In1-ghrelin. In this review, we focus primarily on the potential of In1-ghrelin as a biomarker for cancer progression, the unique characteristics of UAG and AG, the importance of the two known receptor variants GHSR-1a and 1b, as well as the possible mechanisms through which the ghrelin axis acts. Further understanding of the role of the ghrelin axis in tumor cell proliferation could lead to the development of novel therapeutic approaches for various cancers.
胃分泌的激素 ghrelin 主要作为食欲刺激素为人所知。最近，它已成为癌症进展的潜在调节剂/生物标志物。关于这一主题的不一致结果使得这一文献难以解读。在这里，我们试图确定 ghrelin 与各种癌症之间关系的共同点，并总结未来研究的重要考虑因素。ghrelin 家族轴的主要参与者是未酰化 ghrelin (UAG)、酰化 ghrelin (AG)、ghrelin O-酰基转移酶 (GOAT) 和生长激素促分泌素受体 (GHSR)。GOAT 负责 ghrelin 的酰化，酰化后 ghrelin 可以与功能性 ghrelin 受体 GHSR-1a 结合，启动激活级联反应。ghrelin 也存在剪接变体，其中最突出的是 In1-ghrelin。在这篇综述中，我们主要关注 In1-ghrelin 作为癌症进展生物标志物的潜力、UAG 和 AG 的独特特征、两种已知受体变体 GHSR-1a 和 1b 的重要性，以及 ghrelin 轴作用的可能机制。进一步了解 ghrelin 轴在肿瘤细胞增殖中的作用可能为各种癌症的治疗方法提供新的途径。
