Cancers, Vol. 13, Pages 4693: STARD3: A Prospective Target for Cancer Therapy

Cancers, Vol. 13, Pages 4693: STARD3: A Prospective Target for Cancer Therapy Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers13184693 Authors: Kanwal Asif Lorenzo Memeo Stefano Palazzolo Yahima Frión-Herrera Salvatore Parisi Isabella Caligiuri Vincenzo Canzonieri Carlotta Granchi Tiziano Tuccinardi Flavio Rizzolio Cancer is one of the major causes of death in developed countries and current therapies are based on surgery, chemotherapeutic agents, and radiation. To overcome side effects induced by chemo- and radiotherapy, in recent decades, targeted therapies have been proposed in second and even first lines. Targeted drugs act on the essential pathways involved in tumor induction, progression, and metastasis, basically all the hallmark of cancers. Among emerging pathways, the cholesterol metabolic pathway is a strong candidate for this purpose. Cancer cells have an accelerated metabolic rate and require a continuous supply of cholesterol for cell division and membrane renewal. Steroidogenic acute regulatory related lipid transfer (START) proteins are a family of proteins involved in the transfer of lipids and some of them are important in non-vesicular cholesterol transportation within the cell. The alteration of their expression levels is implicated in several diseases, including cancers. In this review, we report the latest discoveries on StAR-related lipid transfer protein domain 3 (STARD3), a member of the START family, which has a potential role in cancer, focusi...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research