Department of Thyroid Surgery, General Surgery Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
Molecules. 2023 Apr 25;28(9):3705. doi: 10.3390/molecules28093705.
Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), one of the most investigated and studied biomarkers of the MMPs family, is a zinc-dependent proteolytic metalloenzyme whose primary function is degrading the extracellular matrix (ECM). It has been proved that MMP-9 expression elevates in multiple pathological conditions, including thyroid carcinoma. MMP-9 has a detectable higher level in malignant or metastatic thyroid tumor tissues than in normal or benign tissues and acts as an additional marker to distinguish different tumor stages because of its close correlations with clinical features, such as lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, tumor size and so on. Natural and non-natural MMP-9 inhibitors suppress its expression, block the progression of diseases, and play a role in therapy consequently. MMP-9 inhibitory molecules also assist in treating thyroid tumors by suppressing the proliferation, invasion, migration, metastasis, viability, adhesion, motility, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and other risk factors of different thyroid cancer cells. In a word, discovering and designing MMP-9 inhibitors provide great therapeutic effects and promising clinical values in various types of thyroid carcinoma.
基质金属蛋白酶-9（MMP-9）是 MMPs 家族中研究最多的生物标志物之一，是一种锌依赖性蛋白水解金属酶，其主要功能是降解细胞外基质（ECM）。已经证明 MMP-9 的表达在多种病理情况下升高，包括甲状腺癌。与正常或良性组织相比，恶性或转移性甲状腺肿瘤组织中 MMP-9 的表达水平可检测到升高，并且由于其与临床特征（如淋巴结转移、TNM 分期、肿瘤大小等）密切相关，因此可作为区分不同肿瘤阶段的附加标志物。天然和非天然 MMP-9 抑制剂可抑制其表达，阻止疾病进展，并因此发挥治疗作用。MMP-9 抑制分子还通过抑制不同甲状腺癌细胞的增殖、侵袭、迁移、转移、活力、黏附、运动、上皮-间充质转化（EMT）和其他危险因素来辅助治疗甲状腺肿瘤。总之，发现和设计 MMP-9 抑制剂可为各种类型的甲状腺癌提供巨大的治疗效果和有前景的临床价值。
