Oncological role of HMGA2 (Review)

The high mobility group A2 (HMGA2) protein is a non-histone architectural transcription factor that modulates the transcription of several genes by binding to AT-rich sequences in the minor groove of B-form DNA and alters the chromatin structure. As a result, HMGA2 influences a variety of biological processes, including the cell cycle process, DNA damage repair process, apoptosis, senescence, epithelial-mesenchymal transition and telomere restoration. In addition, the overexpression of HMGA2 is a feature of malignancy, and its elevated expression in human cancer predicts the efficacy of certain chemotherapeutic agents. Accumulating evidence has suggested that the detection of HMGA2 can be used as a routine procedure in clinical tumour analysis.