Yi-Wei Xu, PhD, Senior Technologist, Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, No. 7 Raoping road, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China. 14yyxu@stu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
Ling-Yu Chu, Jian-Jun Xie, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China
Bin-Liang Huang, Xu-Chun Huang, Yu-Hui Peng, Yi-Wei Xu, Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China
Yu-Hui Peng, Yi-Wei Xu, Guangdong Esophageal Cancer Research Institute, The Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Chu LY collected data and wrote the manuscript; Huang BL and Huang XC collected data; Xu YW, Peng YH and Xie JJ supervised the work, revised the manuscript and contributed equally to this work.
Supported bythe Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81972801; the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, No. 2019A1515011873; the Medical Project of Science and Technology Planning of Shantou, No. 200605115266724; and the 2020 Li Ka Shing Foundation Cross-Disciplinary Research Grant, No. 2020LKSFG01B.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Yi-Wei Xu, PhD, Senior Technologist, Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, No. 7 Raoping road, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China. 14yyxu@stu.edu.cn
Received: April 20, 2021 Peer-review started: April 20, 2021 First decision: August 19, 2021 Revised: September 17, 2021 Accepted: April 1, 2022 Article in press: April 1, 2022 Published online: May 15, 2022 Processing time: 384 Days and 19.9 Hours
Abstract
Ephrin-A1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the EFNA1 gene. The ephrins and EPH-related receptors comprise the largest subfamily of receptor protein-tyrosine kinases which play an indispensable role in normal growth and development or in the pathophysiology of various tumors. The role of EFNA1 in tumorigenesis and development is complex and depends on the cell type and microenvironment which in turn affect the expression of EFNA1. This article reviews the expression, prognostic value, regulation and clinical significance of EFNA1 in gastrointestinal tumors.
Core Tip: Ephrin-A1, a protein that in humans is encoded by the EFNA1 gene, is the ligand of EphA2. Studies have shown that the EphA2 receptor and its ligand ephrin-A1 are expressed in a variety of malignant tumors and the interaction between the two promotes the migration of tumor vascular endothelial cells. In addition, studies have shown that EFNA1 widely affects tumor growth through enhancing tumor angiogenesis, malignant cell events and invasiveness. EFNA1 is also up-regulated in gastrointestinal tumors and is closely related to the prognosis of gastrointestinal tumors. Therefore, this article reviews the expression, prognostic value, regulation and clinical significance of EFNA1 in gastrointestinal tumors.
