title: Sirtuins and Cancer: Role in the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition.
abstract: The human sirtuins (SIRT1-SIRT7) enzymes are a highly conserved family of NAD(+)-dependent histone deacetylases, which play a critical role in the regulation of a large number of metabolic pathways involved in stress response and aging. Cancer is an age-associated disease, and sirtuins may have a considerable impact on a plethora of processes that regulate tumorigenesis. In particular, growing evidence suggests that sirtuins may modulate epithelial plasticity by inducing transcriptional reprogramming leading to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), invasion, and metastases. Though commonly regarded as EMT inducers, sirtuins may also suppress this process, and their functional properties seem to largely depend on the cellular context, stage of cancer development, tissue of origin, and microenvironment architecture. Here, we review the role of sirtuins in cancer biology with particular emphasis on their role in EMT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", 70124 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9401-7377
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palmirotta
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", 70124 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3013-1816
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cives
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, 00166 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Della-Morte
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Capuani
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8597-4415
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lauro
authors.affiliation: IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, 00166 Rome, Italy; University San Raffaele, 00166 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Fiorella
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3652-0457
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guadagni
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", 70124 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Silvestris
mesh_terms: D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D037761:Sirtuins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D037761:Sirtuins