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Multiple functions of HuR in urinary tumors

  • Review – Cancer Research
  • Published:
Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Human embryonic lethal abnormal visual-like protein, HuR, belongs to a member of the Hu family of RNA-binding protein and plays a critical role in urinary tumors. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current literature to demonstrate the importance of HuR in urinary tract tumors’ biology and explore the potential role in therapeutic strategies aimed at targeting this molecule in cancer cells.

Methods

The relevant literature from PubMed and Medline databases is reviewed in this article.

Results

Increasing evidence supports that HuR plays a critical role in urinary tumors’ biology because it regulates the expression of many urinary tumors-associated molecules through post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms (including mRNA trafficking, mRNA decay and protein translation). Recent studies have demonstrated that HuR is associated with chemoresistance of urinary tumors, suggesting that HuR might be a novel therapeutic target and a marker for therapeutic response and prognosis assessment.

Conclusion

HuR is associated with various urinary tumors biological characteristics. Targeted therapy of HuR may become an attractive treatment strategy. What’s more, more preclinical and clinical trials of this targeted strategy are necessary for the treatment of urinary tumors.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Talent Innovation and Enterprise Program of Lanzhou (Grant no. 2015-RC-16).

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Author notes

  1. Fa Zhang, Zhonglin Cai and Haidi Lv contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Gansu Provincial Hospital, 204 Donggang West Road, Chengguan District, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, China

    Fa Zhang, Haidi Lv, Wenjuan Li, Mengtian Liang, Xupan Wei & Fenghai Zhou

  2. Department of Urology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

    Zhonglin Cai

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  1. Fa Zhang
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  2. Zhonglin Cai
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  3. Haidi Lv
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Correspondence to Fenghai Zhou.

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This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Zhang, F., Cai, Z., Lv, H. et al. Multiple functions of HuR in urinary tumors. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 145, 11–18 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-018-2778-2

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