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Review
. 2021 Feb 11;13(4):741.
doi: 10.3390/cancers13040741.

Myosin Motors: Novel Regulators and Therapeutic Targets in Colorectal Cancer

Nayden G Naydenov  1 , Susana Lechuga  1 , Emina H Huang  2 , Andrei I Ivanov  1
Affiliations
Review

Myosin Motors: Novel Regulators and Therapeutic Targets in Colorectal Cancer

Nayden G Naydenov et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the third most common cause of cancer and the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Clinicians are largely faced with advanced and metastatic disease for which few interventions are available. One poorly understood aspect of CRC involves altered organization of the actin cytoskeleton, especially at the metastatic stage of the disease. Myosin motors are crucial regulators of actin cytoskeletal architecture and remodeling. They act as mechanosensors of the tumor environments and control key cellular processes linked to oncogenesis, including cell division, extracellular matrix adhesion and tissue invasion. Different myosins play either oncogenic or tumor suppressor roles in breast, lung and prostate cancer; however, little is known about their functions in CRC. This review focuses on the functional roles of myosins in colon cancer development. We discuss the most studied class of myosins, class II (conventional) myosins, as well as several classes (I, V, VI, X and XVIII) of unconventional myosins that have been linked to CRC development. Altered expression and mutations of these motors in clinical tumor samples and their roles in CRC growth and metastasis are described. We also evaluate the potential of using small molecular modulators of myosin activity to develop novel anticancer therapies.

Keywords: actin cytoskeleton; invasion; matrix adhesion; metastasis; migration; motor proteins; tumor growth; vesicle trafficking.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Molecular organization and cellular functions of myosin motors. The diagram illustrates a common domain structure of different conventional and unconventional myosins and their most characterized cellular activities in regulating actin filament sliding/contractility (A), vesicle trafficking along actin filaments (B), tethering actin filaments to cellular membranes (C) and assembly of nuclear transcriptional complexes (D). Figure 1 by Brandon Stelter, BFA. Reprinted with the permission of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Medical Art & Photography © 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Functional effects of abnormal myosin activities in colon cancer cells. This figure depicts the known or proposed functional effects of altered expression or activity of different myosins in colon cancer cells that include increased cell proliferation, accelerated motility and loss of epithelial differentiation. See the text for abbreviations of different members of the myosin superfamily. Figure 2 by Brandon Stelter, BFA. Reprinted with the permission of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Medical Art & Photography © 2021. All Rights Reserved.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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