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Research progress on the role of FOXOs family in cancer 

ZHANG Xian-Hong, WEI Meng-Meng, YUAN Dong-Dong, WU Wei, LI Le^*

Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Protection and Utilization of Special Biological Resources in Western China, School of Life Sciences, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China

Abstract

The Forkhead box class O proteins (FOXOs) family consists of highly conserved transcription factors, including FOXO1, FOXO3, FOXO4 and FOXO6. Each member of the FOXOs family is ubiquitously expressed and involved in regulating many biological activities such as tumor cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration and oxidative stress. The activity of FOXOs is mainly regulated by post-translational modification, and its inactivation is mainly mediated by the over-activation of its upstream modifying enzymes, which provides a possibility to use drugs to recover its activity. It is worth noting that FOXOs can not only inhibit, but also promote the occurrence and development of human tumors due to the complex effects of FOXOs. This review will summarize the structure and activity regulation of FOXOs, and discuss their tumor inhibiting effects by limiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis, as well as their tumor promoting effects by maintaining cell homeostasis, promoting metastasis and inducing drug resistance, so as to provide new ideas for the pathological research of related diseases and open up new ways to promote broader prevention and treatment strategies.

Key words: FOXOs; tumor; apoptosis; autophagy; metabolism

Received: 　　Accepted:

Corresponding author: 李乐　　E-mail: leli@nxu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2022.0053

Citing This Article：

ZHANG Xian-Hong, WEI Meng-Meng, YUAN Dong-Dong, WU Wei, LI Le. Research progress on the role of FOXOs family in cancer . Acta Physiol Sin 2022; 74 (5): 843-855 (in Chinese with English abstract).