The Role of Cysteine Cathepsins in Cancer Progression and Drug Resistance

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 20; no. 14; p. 3602
• Main Authors: Rudzińska, Magdalena, Parodi, Alessandro, Soond, Surinder M, Vinarov, Andrey Z, Korolev, Dmitry O, Morozov, Andrey O, Daglioglu, Cenk, Tutar, Yusuf, Zamyatnin, Jr, Andrey A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 23-07-2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Amino acids; Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Ascites; Biotechnology; Breast cancer; Cancer; cancer progression; Cathepsins; Cathepsins - chemistry; Cathepsins - classification; Cathepsins - genetics; Cathepsins - metabolism; Cell Death - drug effects; Cell Death - genetics; Cell Line, Tumor; Colon; Colorectal carcinoma; Computational fluid dynamics; Cystatin C; cysteine cathepsins; Cytoplasm; Depletion; DNA methylation; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm - genetics; Endoplasmic reticulum; Enzymes; Extracellular Matrix - drug effects; Extracellular Matrix - metabolism; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Glioblastoma; Humans; Kidney cancer; Lung carcinoma; Lymphatic Metastasis; Lysosomes - drug effects; Lysosomes - enzymology; Melanoma; Metastases; Metastasis; Models, Molecular; Molecular weight; mRNA; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - enzymology; Neoplasms - genetics; Neoplasms - pathology; Neovascularization, Pathologic - drug therapy; Neovascularization, Pathologic - enzymology; Neovascularization, Pathologic - genetics; Neovascularization, Pathologic - pathology; Peptides; Pituitary; Protein Conformation; Proteins; Proteolysis; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 - genetics; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 - metabolism; Renal cell carcinoma; Review; Signal Transduction; Tumor cell lines; Tumors; cancer progression; cysteine cathepsins; drug resistance
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms20143602

Cysteine cathepsins are lysosomal enzymes belonging to the papain family. Their expression is misregulated in a wide variety of tumors, and ample data prove their involvement in cancer progression, angiogenesis, metastasis, and in the occurrence of drug resistance. However, while their overexpression is usually associated with highly aggressive tumor phenotypes, their mechanistic role in cancer progression is still to be determined to develop new therapeutic strategies. In this review, we highlight the literature related to the role of the cysteine cathepsins in cancer biology, with particular emphasis on their input into tumor biology.