A regulation of Nodal/ Activins in the tumorigenesis process by Piwil2

A regulation of Nodal/ Activins in the tumorigenesis process by Piwil2
Sedigheh Sadat Mortazavi,¹ Hossein Ghahramani almanghadim,² Zahra Bahmanpour ,³ Maryam Shahali ,^4,*
1. Division of Genetics, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
2. Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Ahar Branch, Ahar, Iran.
3. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
4. Production Department, Research and Production Complex Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran,
Introduction: Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been reported to a vital program in both embryonic development and cancer progression. Recently, a wide range of studies has highlighted a link between EMT and the formation of cancer stem cells (CSCs), a small subset of tumor cells with SC-like properties. Various Signaling pathways are connecting EMT programs to stemness properties. One of which is TGFβ superfamily members, such as NODAL and Activin. Nodal/ Activins are expressed during embryonic development, but their aberrant re-expression induce the CSCs formation and EMT process. Another fundamental inducer of CSCs and Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition is PIWIL2, a member of the piwi gene family. PIWIL2 is normally expressed in the testis and regulated self-renewal in germ cells, but its ectopic expression has been reported in a variety of tumors where it affects the initiation and progression of cancer. Although, Based on previous studies, PIWIL2 negatively regulates TGF-beta signaling, including NODAL in early embryogenesis, the role and the relationship between piwil2 and TGF-beta family are not understood in the process of tumorigenesis.
Methods: Therefore, Our objective is to review the recent articles for discovering the upstream regulatory function(s) of Piwil2 in TGFβ members expression in carcinogenesis.
Results: The findings presented here suggest that the regulatory functions of piwil2 in the Nodal/Activin signaling pathway.
Conclusion: The findings presented here suggest that the regulatory functions of piwil2 in the Nodal/Activin signaling pathway. However, further experimental data are needed to fully confirm the regulatory role of piwil2 in the pathways.
Keywords: piwil2, EMT, CSC, Nodal, Activin.