The role of TWIST1 in epithelial-mesenchymal transition and cancers.
TWIST1 is a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor which plays essential and pivotal roles in multiple stages of embryonic development, and significantly contributes to tumor metastasis, even tumor initiation and primary tumor growth. It is well recognized that TWIST1 is overexpressed in a variety of tumors. Overexpression of TWIST1 induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a key process in the metastases formation of cancer. TWIST1 also promotes the formation of cancer stem cells and facilitates the process of tumorigenesis. Numerous studies have shown that targeting TWIST1 or TWIST1-related molecules significantly inhibits tumor growth, restricts tumor metastasis, reverses drug resistance, and thus improves the survival of cancer patients. Therefore, it is important to provide a better understanding of the context-dependent regulation of TWIST1 in each individual epithelial tumor, which might reveal new therapeutic targets in cancer treatment.
['Zhu|Qing-Qing|QQ|', 'Ma|Chenhui|C|', 'Wang|Qian|Q|', 'Song|Yong|Y|', 'Lv|Tangfeng|T|']
D001943:Breast Neoplasms D063646:Carcinogenesis D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition D005260:Female D020869:Gene Expression Profiling D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic D006801:Humans D008297:Male D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis D009369:Neoplasms D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells D009687:Nuclear Proteins D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms D015398:Signal Transduction D016896:Treatment Outcome D051879:Twist-Related Protein 1
Role TWIST1 Cancers Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)