Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2015; 21(9): 2605-2613
Published online Mar 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i9.2605
Role of periostin and its antagonist PNDA-3 in gastric cancer metastasis
Guo-Xiao Liu, Hong-Qing Xi, Xiao-Yan Sun, Bo Wei
Guo-Xiao Liu, Hong-Qing Xi, Xiao-Yan Sun, Bo Wei, Department of General Surgery, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to this work.
Supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China, No. 81101883.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Bo Wei, Professor, Department of General Surgery, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing 100853, China. 13381326128@163.com
Telephone: +86-10-66938271 Fax: +86-791-83849520-810
Received: August 23, 2014
Peer-review started: August 23, 2014
First decision: September 27, 2014
Revised: October 12, 2014
Accepted: December 14, 2014
Article in press: December 16, 2014
Published online: March 7, 2015
Abstract

The extracellular matrix component periostin is a secreted protein that functions as both a cell attachment protein and an autocrine or paracrine factor that signals through the cell adhesion molecule integrins αvβ3 and αvβ5. Periostin participates in normal physiological activities such as cardiac development, but is also involved in pathophysiological processes in vascular diseases, wound repair, bone formation, and tumor development. It is of increasing interest in tumor biology because it is frequently overexpressed in a variety of epithelial carcinomas and is functionally involved in multiple steps of metastasis progression. These include the maintenance of stemness, niche formation, EMT, the survival of tumor cells, and angiogenesis, all of which are indispensable for gastric cancer metastasis. Periostin has been reported to activate the PI-3K/AKT, Wnt, and FAK-mediated signaling pathways to promote metastasis. Therefore, periostin represents a potentially promising candidate for the inhibition of metastasis. In this review article, we summarize recent advances in knowledge concerning periostin, its antagonist PNDA-3, and their influence on such key processes in cancer metastasis as maintenance of stemness, niche formation, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, tumor cell survival, and angiogenesis. In particular, we focus our attention on the role of periostin in gastric cancer metastasis, speculate as to the usefulness of periostin as a therapeutic and diagnostic target for gastric cancer metastasis, and consider potential avenues for future research.

Keywords: Periostin, Cancer, Tumorigenesis, Extracellular matrix, Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, Metastasis, Aptamer, PNDA-3

Core tip: Periostin is involved in various signaling pathways, mediates the critical steps of a wide variety of human tumors, and is associated with tumor growth, invasiveness, and metastasis. Although some authors have written reviews about periostin, they are often fragmented and not very comprehensive. The purpose of this review is to summarize the most recent knowledge of periostin and its antagonist, as well as their structure and the role they play in cancer metastasis, including the maintenance of stemness, niche formation, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, the survival of tumor cells and angiogenesis, and avenues for future research.