Abstract
Purinergic signalling is involved in several physiological and pathophysiological processes. P2X7 Receptor (P2X7R) is a calcium-permeable ion channel that is gaining interest as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of different diseases including inflammation, pain, psychiatric disorders and cancer. P2X7R is ubiquitously expressed and sensitive to high ATP levels, usually found in tumor microenvironment. P2X7R regulates several cell functions, from migration to cell death, but its selective contribution to tumor progression remains controversial. Current review was conducted to check involvement of P2X7R use in cancer treatment. We review the most recent patents focused on the use of P2X7R in the treatment of cancer. P2X7R is an intriguing purinergic receptor that plays different roles in tumor progression. Powerful strategies able to selectively interfere with its expression and function should reveal helpful in the development of new anti-cancer therapies.
Highlights
Purinergic signalling involves purine nucleotides and nucleosides such as adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) and adenosine (ADO) [1]
Other pro-angiogenic roles for P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) are reported in literature: its activation on cancer cells was associated with increased HIF-1α activity [55], vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) [56, 57] and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) production, such as MMP-2 and MMP-9 [58], promoting tumor growth and angiogenesis [59] and invasiveness and metastasis spreading [35, 58, 60]
P2X7R is a purinergic receptor involved in inflammation and cancer progression
Summary
Purinergic signalling involves purine nucleotides and nucleosides such as adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) and adenosine (ADO) [1]. It is involved in short-term neurotransmission, neuromodulation and secretion) and longterm processes (proliferation, differentiation, migration and death in development and regeneration) acting on a variety of fferent cell types [2]. The effects on target cells depend on the binding with purinergic receptors which are classified in two major families: the metabotropic P1 receptors for ADO and the P2 family, including P2Y metabotropic and P2X ionotropic subclasses [3, 4]. P2X receptors (P2XR) are ATP-gated calcium-permeable cation channels. P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) is gaining growing interest as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of numerous diseases, including cancer [6, 7]
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