Purine Signaling and Metabolism in Tumors
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Cell Signaling".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2021) | Viewed by 50526
Special Issue Editor
Interests: glial cell function; activities of adenine and guanine-based purines as signaling molecules in the mechanisms involved in neurotransmission and neuroprotection; mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) biological characteristics; glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)-derived stem cell (GSC) properties; modulatory receptor activity of adenine-based purines on the osteogenic differentiation of normal human MSCs and on the aggressivenes of human GSCs
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cancer continues to be a serious health problem and one of the most common causes of mortality worldwide, despite the continued adoption of new therapeutic strategies and innovative agents. Therapeutic insufficiency is due to the enormous variety of biological processes involved in the growth of a tumor, which can coexist or activate when necessary to favor its expansion/recurrence. Furthermore, cancer cells have a remarkable ability to implement adaptive strategies to escape even the most effective treatments. Therefore, an understanding of this complex machinery and the discovery of molecules capable of hindering/contrasting the growth mechanisms of cancer is crucial, thus providing new therapeutic opportunities.
Today, there is a renewed interest in purines in oncology. They are ancestral and ubiquitous molecules present in virtually all cell types and are indispensable for the proliferation of cancer cells. Therefore, synthetic analogues of purines, which act as antimetabolites, have been and are still being used for the treatment of various cancers. However, growing evidence has highlighted that high levels of purines, in particular ATP and adenosine, are present in the tumor microenvironment, where, interacting as signal molecules with their specific receptors, they influence not only tumor growth but also tumor–host interaction and immune function in several ways. Furthermore, dysregulation of enzymes that degrade ATP/adenosine has been reported in extracellular tumor fluid. All of these results are promoting research to add new knowledge into purine receptor activity and metabolism in order to find purine receptor ligands and/or purine analogues/metabolites capable of suppressing tumor cell growth.
The purpose of this Special Issue dedicated to “Purine Signaling and Metabolism in Tumors” is to attract the interest of those scientists who are investigating the above-mentioned aspects. This Special Issue should represent an update of research on purines in oncology and hopefully gather new discoveries about these compounds to translate into new anticancer therapies.
Prof. Renata Ciccarelli
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- expression of purine receptors in tumor cells/tissues
- activity of purines as signaling molecules in cancer development and progression
- presence and activity of purine metabolizing enzymes in cancer growth/expansion
- modulation of mechanisms/molecular and enzyme pathways involved in tumor growth and recurrence by ligands for purinergic receptors and/or purine analogs
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