title: Epithelial to mesenchymal transition inducing transcription factors and metastatic cancer.
abstract: The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important step for the developmental process. Recent evidences support that EMT allows the tumor cells to acquire invasive properties and to develop metastatic growth characteristics. Some of the transcription factors, which are actively involved in EMT process, have a significant role in the EMT-metastasis linkage. A number of studies have reported that EMT-inducing transcription factors (EMT-TFs), such as Twist, Snail, Slug, and Zeb, are directly or indirectly involved in cancer cell metastasis through a different signaling cascades, including the Akt, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and Wnt pathways, with the ultimate consequence of the downregulation of E-cadherin and upregulation of metastatic proteins, such as N-cadherin, vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, etc. This review summarizes the update information on the association of EMT-TFs with cancer metastasis and the possible cancer therapeutics via targeting the EMT-TFs.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Epigenetics and Oncology, The Research Center for Preclinical Medicine, Luzhou Medical College, Luzhou, 646000, Sichuan, China, mousumitania@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Mousumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tania
authors.forename: Md Asaduzzaman
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Junjiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fu
mesh_terms: D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D000071250:Snail Family Transcription Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000502:physiology*; D051879:Twist-Related Protein 1 / Q000502:physiology; D000071799:Zinc Finger E-box-Binding Homeobox 1
chemical_list: D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C000604407:SNAI1 protein, human; D000071250:Snail Family Transcription Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors; D051879:Twist-Related Protein 1; C486307:ZEB1 protein, human; D000071799:Zinc Finger E-box-Binding Homeobox 1