CUX1, A Controversial Player in Tumor Development

Ning Liu; Qiliang Sun; Long Wan; Xuan Wang; Yu Feng; Judong Luo; Hailong Wu

doi:10.3389/fonc.2020.00738

CUX1, A Controversial Player in Tumor Development

Front Oncol. 2020 May 29:10:738. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.00738. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ning Liu¹, Qiliang Sun², Long Wan¹, Xuan Wang³, Yu Feng⁴, Judong Luo⁵, Hailong Wu^{6

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Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Oncology, Taian City Central Hospital, Tai'an, China.
² Department of Respiratory Medicine, Taian City Central Hospital, Tai'an, China.
³ Department of Liver Diseases, Central Laboratory, Institute of Clinical Immunology, ShuGuang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Chinese Traditional Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Department of General Surgery, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Department of Radiation Oncology, The Affiliated Changzhou No.2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou, China.
⁶ Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences Affiliated Zhoupu Hospital, Shanghai, China.
⁷ Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedicine, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁸ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

CUX1 belongs to the homeodomain transcription factor family and is evolutionarily and functionally conserved from Drosophila to humans. In addition to the involvement in various physiological events including tissue development, cell proliferation, differentiation and migration, and DNA damage response, CUX1 has been implicated in tumorigenesis. Interestingly, CUX1 has been recently recognized as a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor, which is paradoxically overexpressed in tumor cells. While loss of heterozygosity and/or mutations of CUX1 have been frequently detected in many types of cancers, genomic amplification, and overexpression of CUX1 have also been reported in cancer tissues and are correlated with higher tumor grade and poor prognosis. Therefore, deciphering the roles of different CUX1 isoforms and in different tumor stages is required to establish a CUX1-based therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment.

Keywords: CUX1; DNA damage; KRAS mutation; haploinsufficient tumor suppressor; tumor progression.

Publication types

Review