Open AccessCalpain in Breast Cancer: Role in Disease Progression and Treatment Response
Author(s) -
Sarah J. Storr,
Nicola Thompson,
Xuan Pu,
Yimin Zhang,
Stewart G. Martin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
pathobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1423-0291
pISSN - 1015-2008
DOI - 10.1159/000430464
Subject(s) - calpain , calpastatin , proteases , breast cancer , cancer research , cancer , apoptosis , medicine , cytoskeleton , biology , oncology , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , enzyme , cell , biochemistry
The calpains are a family of intracellular cysteine proteases that function in a wide array of cellular activities, including cytoskeletal remodelling, survival and apoptosis. The ubiquitously expressed micro (µ)-calpain and milli (m)-calpain are archetypal family members that require calcium for function and can be inhibited by their endogenous inhibitor calpastatin. This review describes the role of the calpain system in the prognosis of breast cancer and disease progression, in addition to the role of the calpain system in the response to breast cancer treatments, including chemotherapeutic, endocrine and targeted therapies.