title: The role of TWIST1 in epithelial-mesenchymal transition and cancers.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing, 210002, China.
authors.forename: Qing-Qing
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing, 210002, China.
authors.forename: Chenhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210029, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing, 210002, China. yong_song6310@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing, 210002, China. bairoushui@163.com.
authors.forename: Tangfeng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lv
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; 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 / Q000378:metabolism*; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000378:metabolism; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D051879:Twist-Related Protein 1 / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C103173:TWIST1 protein, human; D051879:Twist-Related Protein 1
keywords: Cancers; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT); Role; TWIST1