PRL-3: a phosphatase for metastasis?
The PRL-3 phosphatase has joined the cancer arena very recently but is rapidly gaining interest both as a putative prognostic factor and as a therapeutic target for metastatic tumors. In this issue Guo and colleagues provide another key piece of information by showing that the catalytic activity of PRL-3 is required for experimental metastasis formation in mouse models. Here we summarize the current knowledge and discuss what remains to be done before PRL-3 could be considered as a target for diagnostics or therapeutics in the clinical setting of human cancer.
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Jason A
JA
Sager
Silvia
S
Benvenuti
Alberto
A
Bardelli
D000818:Animals; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D006801:Humans; D017874:Immediate-Early Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000201:enzymology / Q000556:secondary*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D017027:Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases / Q000378:metabolism*
D017874:Immediate-Early Proteins; C111534:Ptp4a3 protein, mouse; D017027:Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases