A short review of CD73 Role in Cancer

The purinergic signaling pathway has been introduced as the main way in the progression of cancer and is regulated by producing a series of nucleotides. CD73 is a surface protein encoded by the NT5E gene and plays a crucial role in cell signaling. CD73 has both enzymatic and non-enzymatic functions, independent of its enzymatic activity in cells; it has been detected to be over-expressed and plays an important role in many types of cancer. However, the non-enzymatic function of CD73 has not been well studied yet. Findings from recent research show that CD73 activities are exploited as ectoenzyme to produce extracellular adenosine; in other words, there is a tumor-induced immunosuppressive mechanism for CD73. It can increase tumor proliferation and development by restricting antitumor T immunity through adenosine receptor signaling. Several factors and mechanisms have been used to control CD73 expression. Studies in various models have shown that CD73 plays a key role in the growth of tumors; it has also become an attractive therapeutic goal for scientists in many studies related to cancer. They include identifying different cancer subsets, the anticipation of drug response in patients, precipitation of purine escape pathway activity etc. Collective studies have proved that CD73 is a substantial molecule that formulates proliferation, colonialism and invasion in vitro, angiogenesis and immune escape in vivo in cancer and tumor cells. The data has shown that the potential of CD73 distinguished it as a recognizable biological marker in the next generation of treatment and research studies on cancer.