Recombinant sFRPs in Wnt/β-Catenin signaling targeted cancer therapy

Abstract

Cancer cells are known to lack regulation of cell proliferation due to the aberrant behavior of a myriad of signaling pathways. One such pathway is the Wnt signal cascade, which is one of the multiple facets responsible for the upregulation of several pro-proliferative genes in cancer. In non-cancerous cells, this Wnt pathway is blocked by a family of secretory glycoproteins playing a role in cell growth arrest, called the secreted frizzled-related proteins (sFRPs). However, these sFRPs are typically silenced in cancer due to promoter hypermethylation. The current thesis aims to exploit the anti-proliferative role of sFRPs to regulate cancer cell proliferation in vitro by targeted protein therapeutics. More specifically, the two most promising sFRPs, viz., sFRP1 and sFRP4, were selected for the development of novel co-therapeutic and theranostic models for combating cancer in cell culture model.