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Review
. 2020 Sep;24(18):10279-10289.
doi: 10.1111/jcmm.15684. Epub 2020 Aug 3.

Mucins in pancreatic cancer: A well-established but promising family for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy

Shunda Wang  1 , Lei You  1 , Menghua Dai  1 , Yupei Zhao  1
Affiliations
Review

Mucins in pancreatic cancer: A well-established but promising family for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy

Shunda Wang et al. J Cell Mol Med. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

Mucins are a family of multifunctional glycoproteins that mostly line the surface of epithelial cells in the gastrointestinal tract and exert pivotal roles in gut lubrication and protection. Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease with poor early diagnosis, limited therapeutic effects, and high numbers of cancer-related deaths. In this review, we introduce the expression profiles of mucins in the normal pancreas, pancreatic precursor neoplasia and pancreatic cancer. Mucins in the pancreas contribute to biological processes such as the protection, lubrication and moisturization of epithelial tissues. They also participate in the carcinogenesis of pancreatic cancer and are used as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Herein, we discuss the important roles of mucins that lead to the lethality of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, particularly MUC1, MUC4, MUC5AC and MUC16 in disease progression, and present a comprehensive analysis of the clinical application of mucins and their promising roles in cancer treatment to gain a better understanding of the role of mucins in pancreatic cancer.

Keywords: diagnosis; mucins; pancreatic cancer; prognosis; therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors confirm that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The structure of membrane‐bound mucin and secreted mucin. EGF, epidermal growth factor; NIDO, nidogen‐like domain; SEA, sea urchin sperm protein‐enterokinase‐agrin; TRR, tandem repeat region; vWD, von Willebrand factor D domain; vWF, von Willebrand factor like domain
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The overall survival curves of mucins in pancreatic cancer depicted by Kaplan‐Meier plotter (*P < .05)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Mucins play important roles in the therapy of pancreatic cancer. The red arrow indicates the application of mucin‐based vaccines. The blue arrow shows the antibody targeting mucins for therapy. The yellow arrow implicates the gene therapy by altering the expression of mucins. The green arrow manifests the mechanism of mucolytic agents
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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