Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
Volume 22, Issue 8, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22084111
Keywords
urokinase receptor; uPAR; cancer hallmarks
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Proteolysis is crucial in biological processes, but must be tightly controlled to prevent adverse effects. The plasminogen activation (PA) system plays a key role in cancer, with uPAR involved in cancer cell biology.
Proteolysis is a key event in several biological processes; proteolysis must be tightly controlled because its improper activation leads to dramatic consequences. Deregulation of proteolytic activity characterizes many pathological conditions, including cancer. The plasminogen activation (PA) system plays a key role in cancer; it includes the serine-protease urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA). uPA binds to a specific cellular receptor (uPAR), which concentrates proteolytic activity at the cell surface, thus supporting cell migration. However, a large body of evidence clearly showed uPAR involvement in the biology of cancer cell independently of the proteolytic activity of its ligand. In this review we will first describe this multifunctional molecule and then we will discuss how uPAR can sustain most of cancer hallmarks, which represent the biological capabilities acquired during the multistep cancer development. Finally, we will illustrate the main data available in the literature on uPAR as a cancer biomarker and a molecular target in anti-cancer therapy.
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