Roles of ABCA1 in cancer

Abstract

Studies have indicated that anticancer drugs targeting cholesterol metabolism have clinical significance. From the perspective of the mechanism of cholesterol excretion from cells, ATP-binding cassette (ABC)A1 has an essential role that cannot be ignored. ABCA1 is located on the cell membrane and able to mediate the efflux of lipids, such as intracellular cholesterol, thereby initiating reverse cholesterol transport to reduce the intracellular cholesterol level. Therefore, inducing the expression of ABCA1 may become a new breakthrough point in cancer therapy.

Keywords: ABCA1; cell proliferation; drug resistance; invasion and metastasis.

Figure 1.

Mechanism of lipid efflux mediated by ABCA1. ① Low-density lipoprotein binds to ABCA1 to form a complex. ② The complex is internalized, part of it is transferred to the lysosome for degradation and the rest is located to the endosome. ③ The complex on the endosome combines with lipid to form the apoA-l/lipid complex. ④ The lipid complexes are resecreted through exocytosis, and after dissociation, they are conducive to the formation of high-density lipoprotein complexes. Apo, apolipoprotein; ABC, ATP-binding cassette.

Figure 2.

Roles of ABCA1 in various cancer types and cancer treatment (64,65,69,71,72). ABC, ATP-binding cassette; shRNA, short hairpin RNA; LDLR, low-density lipoprotein receptor; MRP2, multidrug resistance-associated protein 2.