Abstract
The receptor for the cardiac hormone atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPR-A), has been reported to be expressed in lung cancer, prostate cancer and ovarian cancer. NPR-A expression and signaling is important for tumor growth; its deficiency protects C57BL/6 mice from lung, skin and ovarian cancers. This suggests that NPR-A is a new marker and a new target for cancer therapy. Recently, NPR-A has been demonstrated to be expressed in pre-implantation embryos and in embryonic stem cells, which has a novel role in the maintenance of self-renewal and pluripotency of embryonic stem cells. A nanoparticle-formulated interfering RNA for NPR-A attenuated B16 melanoma tumors in mice. Ectopic expression of a plasmid encoding NP73-102, the NH2-terminal peptide of the ANP prohormone which downregulates NPR-A expression, also suppressed lung metastasis of A549 cells in nude mice and tumorigenesis of Line 1 cells in immunocompetent BALB/c mice. These results suggest that NPR-A is involved in tumorigenesis and a new target for cancer therapy. This review focuses on structure, abnormal functions and carcinogenic mechanisms of NPR-A to investigate its role in tumorigenesis.
Highlights
Natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPR-A) is the receptor for atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP)
NPR-A has been reported to be expressed in cancer cells for 30 years [50], it was not until 2008 that the role of NPR-A in cancer was studied [8]
Our research mainly focuses on the NPR-A and gastric cancer
Summary
Natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPR-A) is the receptor for atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). Natriuretic peptide receptor A and lung cancer In 1993, NPR-A mRNA was identified by Southern blot analyses of PCR products and RNase protection assays using poly (A) (+)-selected RNA, and it was first reported expressed in human small-cell lung cancer cell lines [50]. Natriuretic peptide receptor A and skin cancer Kong and colleagues found that NPR-A is expressed at a higher level in melanoma [8]. Carcinogenic mechanism of natriuretic peptide receptor A Athough Vesely’s group only focused on the effect of natriuretic peptides (including ANP) on the proliferation of various cancer cells and tumor growth and they did not investigate the role of NPR-A in cancer, they showed that these peptides decrease expression of NPR-A [60]. These result from pre-implantation embryos and embryonic stem cells may give us some clues in the study of NPR-A in cancer
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