IMR Press / FBL / Volume 6 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.2741/normano

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
The role of EGF-related peptides in tumor growth
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1 Oncologia Sperimentale D, ITN-Fondazione Pascale, 80131 Napoli, Italy
2 Tumor Growth Factor Section, LTIB, NCI, NIH, 20892, Bethesda MD, USA
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2001, 6(3), 685–707; https://doi.org/10.2741/normano
Published: 1 May 2001
Abstract

The epidermal growth factor (EGF) family of peptides encodes several proteins that can function as growth factors. The EGF-like peptides, with the exception of proteins of the EGF-CFC subfamily, bind and activate tyrosine kinase receptors that belong to the erbB family. The EGF-like peptides are overexpressed in a majority of human carcinomas as compared with their nontransformed counterpart. By using different approaches, it has been shown that several different EGF-like peptides function as autocrine growth factors in carcinoma cell lines of different histological origin. Direct evidence that the EGF-like growth factors might function as transforming genes has been provided by in vitro and in vivo studies. In particular, the development of different transgenic mouse lines in which EGF-like growth factors have been overexpressed by means of tissue-specific or nonspecific promoters has provided invaluable information relating to their ability to function as dominantly transforming oncogenes. Cooperation of the EGF-like peptides with cellular protooncogenes in determining cell transformation has been demonstrated by using both in vitro and transgenic mice systems. Taken together, these data strongly suggest that the EGF-like peptides are involved in the pathogenesis of human carcinomas, and that they might represent suitable targets for novel therapeutic approaches.

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