Oncotarget (a primarily oncology-focused, peer-reviewed, open access journal) aims to maximize research impact through insightful peer-review; eliminate borders between specialties by linking different fields of oncology, cancer research and biomedical sciences; and foster application of basic and clinical science.
Its scope is unique. The term "oncotarget" encompasses all molecules, pathways, cellular functions, cell types, and even tissues that can be viewed as targets relevant to cancer as well as other diseases. The term was introduced in the inaugural Editorial, Introducing OncoTarget.
As of January 1, 2022, Oncotarget has shifted to a continuous publishing model. Papers will now be published continuously within yearly volumes in their final and complete form and then quickly released to Pubmed.
Besides having anti-osteoclastic activity, OPG is thought to exert a protective anti-apoptotic action in OPG-expressing tumors by overcoming the physiologic mechanism of tumor surveillance exerted by TRAIL.
Along with inhibiting TRAIL induced apoptosis, it can induce proliferation by binding to various cell surface receptors and thus turning on the canonical cell survival and proliferative pathways.
OPG also induces angiogenesis, one of the hallmarks of cancer, thus facilitating tumor growth.
This Oncotarget
review is aimed at providing a very informative overview as to how OPG affects cancer progression especially breast cancer.
TME is also rich in various cytokines, chemokines, ECM proteins, growth and angiogenic factors involved in autocrine but also paracrine cell signaling. The field of TME has expanded the understanding of cancer as more than a single factor driven disease.
Rather, cancer biology involves complex reciprocal interaction and co-evolution between cancer cells and host stromal cells, interplay of soluble growth factors and chemokines as the key mediators involved in oncogenic signaling pathways of tumors.
The majority of these are multikinase inhibitors blocking tumor cell growth pathways such as BRAF, Bcr-Abl, c-Kit, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1, VEGFR-2, VEGFR-3, PDGFR and colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor.
Proteomic landscape of the breast cancer TME includes diverse factors involved in tumor growth, proliferation, metastasis, vascularity, evading cell death pathways and host immune system.
Here, the authors focus only on osteoprotegerin
as one of the factors present in the TME of inflammatory and invasive breast cancer cell lines, and discuss how it multitasks various functions to drive tumorigenesis.
The Sharma-Walia Research Team concluded in their OncotargetReview
that in a murine model of osteolytic bone metastases of breast cancer, the CRAd armed with shortened OPG -Fc reduced tumor burden in the bone and inhibited osteoclast formation more effectively than an unarmed CRAd suggesting the role of OPG.
Breast cancer development in BRCA1/2 mutation
carriers is a consequence of autonomous and nonautonomous cell factors, which serve as excellent targets for cancer prevention.
OPG may become a new biomarker and a target of treatment for patients with colorectal cancer since many studies have revealed the clinicopathologic significance of OPG expression by using clinical tissue samples from patients.
The effects of sustained expression of OPG using a recombinant adeno-associated viral vector in a mouse model of osteolytic breast cancer has clearly indicated the potential of rAAV-OPG therapy for reducing morbidity and mortality in breast cancer patients with osteolytic bone damage.
With all this development in the understanding of OPG, there might be more therapeutic avenues to manipulate OPG to predict and manage aggressive forms of breast cancer.
