Zeitschrift für Onkologie, Medizin und Praxis

Cancer biology\'s functional implications of tetraspanin proteins

Abstract

Seeram Ramakrishna

A core of several tetraspanin proteins organizes other membrane proteins like growth factor receptors, integrins, and Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) antigens in these complexes. Albeit most tetraspanin proteins have been concentrated separately, tetraspanin proteins and their edifices can affect cell grip and motility, associations with stroma or influence announcing development factors, and for the greater part of them no ligand has been distinguished. Although they are found in all cell types, these proteins have primarily been studied functionally in lymphoid cells. Tetraspanins have been identified as metastasis suppressors in some tumors, but their significance is still unclear. Data are also available for these tumors. They are outlined, along with some of their implications for tumor biology and areas that require additional research. The biological properties of tumor cells, particularly those pertaining to tumor adhesion and dissemination, can be significantly affected by membrane proteins that are involved in cellular interactions with other cells or the stroma as well as signaling pathways. The tetraspanins, a brand-new class of membrane proteins, are beginning to gain importance in cell biology but have received very little attention in the context of cancer biology up until this point.