Abstract
The processes of cancer and embryonic development have a partially overlapping effect. Several transcription factor families, which are highly conserved in the evolutionary history of biology, play a key role in the development of cancer and are often responsible for the pivotal developmental processes such as cell survival, expansion, senescence, and differentiation. As an evolutionary conserved and ubiquitously expression protein, CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) has diverse regulatory functions, including gene regulation, imprinting, insulation, X chromosome inactivation, and the establishment of three-dimensional (3D) chromatin structure during human embryogenesis. In various cancers, CTCF is considered as a tumor suppressor gene and plays homeostatic roles in maintaining genome function and integrity. However, the mechanisms of CTCF in tumor development have not been fully elucidated. Here, this review will focus on the key roles of CTCF in cancer evolution and development (Cancer Evo-Dev) and embryogenesis.
Highlights
CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is a multivalent 11-zinc finger (ZF) protein that binds tens of thousands of sites in the human genome [1]
Depletion of RAD21 in epithelial cancer cells induces epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) while overexpression of RAD21 in mesenchymal cancer cells induces mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET)specific expression patterns, suggesting that dynamic cohesin-mediated chromatin structures are responsible for the initiation and regulation of essential EMT-related cell fate changes in cancer [72]
CTCF exerts a tumor suppressor role by regulating several key factors related to growth and development and regulating the higher-order structure of chromosomes, but its high expression in various cancer cells may promote the malignant proliferation and migration, and often predicts a poor prognosis [33, 79]
Summary
Zishuai Li†, Xinyu Zhou†, Shiliang Cai†, Junyan Fan, Zhimin Wei, Yifan Chen, Guangwen Cao*. Cite this article: Li Z, Zhou X, Cai S, Fan J, Wei Z, Chen Y, et al Key roles of CCCTC-binding factor in cancer evolution and development.
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