Targeting Membrane Trafficking as a Strategy for Cancer Treatment

Vaccines (Basel). 2022 May 17;10(5):790. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10050790.

Abstract

Membrane trafficking is emerging as an attractive therapeutic strategy for cancer. Recent reports have found a connection between Wnt signaling, receptor-mediated endocytosis, V-ATPase, lysosomal activity, and macropinocytosis through the canonical Wnt pathway. In macropinocytic cells, a massive internalization of the plasma membrane can lead to the loss of cell-surface cadherins, integrins, and other antigens that mediate cell-cell adhesion, favoring an invasive phenotype. V-ATPase is a key regulator in maintaining proper membrane trafficking, homeostasis, and the earliest developmental decisions in the Xenopus vertebrate development model system. Here, we review how the interference of membrane trafficking with membrane trafficking inhibitors might be clinically relevant in humans.

Keywords: MVBs; V-ATPase; Wnt signaling; macropinocytosis; membrane trafficking.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

UC Cancer Research Coordinating Committee (grant C21CR2039); National Institutes of Health grant P20CA016042 to the University of California, Los Angeles Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center; and the UCLA Norman Sprague Endowment for Molecular Oncology (BD-55).