Role of the JNK Pathway in Bladder Cancer

Eun Hye Lee; Hyun Tae Kim; So Young Chun; Jae-Wook Chung; Seock Hwan Choi; Jun Nyung Lee; Bum Soo Kim; Eun Sang Yoo; Tae Gyun Kwon; Tae-Hwan Kim; Yun-Sok Ha

doi:10.2147/OTT.S374908

Role of the JNK Pathway in Bladder Cancer

Onco Targets Ther. 2022 Sep 5:15:963-971. doi: 10.2147/OTT.S374908. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Joint Institution of Regenerative Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea.
² Department of Urology, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea.
³ BioMedical Research Institute, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Korea.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Bladder cancer, one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers worldwide, is associated with high morbidity and mortality and a poor prognosis. The bladder cancer types include 1) non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and 2) muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). Metastases and chemoresistance in MIBC patients are the leading causes of the high death rate. c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) is an important factor for the undifferentiated state of cancer cells. JNK belongs to the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) family; it is activated by various extracellular stimuli, such as stress, radiation, and growth factors and mediates diverse cellular functions, such as apoptosis, autophagy, proliferation, invasion, and migration by mediating AKT (Ak strain transforming), ATG (Autophagy related), mTOR (Mammalian target of rapamycin), and caspases 3, 8, and 9. This review describes the JNK-related functions, mechanisms, and signaling in bladder cancer.

Keywords: JNK; apoptosis; autophagy; bladder cancer; chemoresistance; metastasis; proliferation.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (2019R1A2C1004046) (2019R1H1A1079839) (2020R1A2B5B03002344) (2020R1I1A3071568) (2021R1G1A1092985) (2022R1I1A3069482), and Business for Cooperative R&D between Industry, Academy, and Research Institute funded Korea Small and Medium Business Administration (S3106172).