Thymosin β4: a potential molecular target for tumor therapy

Crit Rev Eukaryot Gene Expr. 2012;22(2):109-16. doi: 10.1615/critreveukargeneexpr.v22.i2.30.

Abstract

Thymosin β4 (Tβ4), a 5 kDa protein, has been demonstrated to play an important role in a variety of biological activities, such as actin sequestering, cellular motility, migration, inflammation, and damage repair. Recently, several novel findings provided compelling evidence that Tβ4 played a key role in facilitating tumor metastasis and angiogenesis. It has been found that Tβ4 expressed increasingly in a number of metastatic tumors, which was associated with an increased expression of a known angiogenic factor, vascular endothelial growth factor. Thus, Tβ4 provided a potential target of opportunity for cancer management, especially for cancer metastasis therapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Movement
  • Cell Survival
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic
  • Drug Resistance, Neoplasm
  • Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Humans
  • Inflammation / metabolism
  • Inflammation / pathology
  • Inflammation / therapy
  • Neoplasm Metastasis / pathology
  • Neoplasm Metastasis / therapy*
  • Neoplastic Stem Cells / metabolism
  • Neoplastic Stem Cells / pathology
  • Neovascularization, Pathologic / metabolism
  • Thymosin / genetics
  • Thymosin / metabolism*
  • Thymosin / therapeutic use
  • Wound Healing

Substances

  • thymosin beta(4)
  • Thymosin