The Role of Microtubules in Pancreatic Cancer: Therapeutic Progress

Mugahed Abdullah Hasan Albahde; Bulat Abdrakhimov; Guo-Qi Li; Xiaohu Zhou; Dongkai Zhou; Hao Xu; Huixiao Qian; Weilin Wang

doi:10.3389/fonc.2021.640863

The Role of Microtubules in Pancreatic Cancer: Therapeutic Progress

Front Oncol. 2021 May 21:11:640863. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.640863. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Mugahed Abdullah Hasan Albahde^{1

2

3

4}, Bulat Abdrakhimov⁴, Guo-Qi Li^{1

2}, Xiaohu Zhou^{1

2}, Dongkai Zhou^{1

2}, Hao Xu^{1

2}, Huixiao Qian^{1

2}, Weilin Wang^{1

2

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment for Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Tumor of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.
³ Research Center of Diagnosis and Treatment Technology for Hepatocellular Carcinoma of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Clinical Medicine Innovation Center of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment for Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Disease of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Clinical Research Center of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Diseases of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer has an extremely low prognosis, which is attributable to its high aggressiveness, invasiveness, late diagnosis, and lack of effective therapies. Among all the drugs joining the fight against this type of cancer, microtubule-targeting agents are considered to be the most promising. They inhibit cancer cells although through different mechanisms such as blocking cell division, apoptosis induction, etc. Hereby, we review the functions of microtubule cytoskeletal proteins in tumor cells and comprehensively examine the effects of microtubule-targeting agents on pancreatic carcinoma.

Keywords: drugs; microtubule-targeting agents; microtubules; pancreatic cancer; pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Publication types

Review