Targeting Lysophosphatidic Acid in Cancer: The Issues in Moving from Bench to Bedside

• Published in: Cancers Vol. 11; no. 10; p. 1523
• Main Author: Xu, Yan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 10.10.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Breast cancer; Cancer; Clinical trials; Cloning; Enzymes; Fibroblasts; Fibrosis; Glycerol; Kinases; Leukemia; Lysophosphatidic acid; Metabolism; Ovarian cancer; Phosphorylation; Prostate; Proteins; Review; Vascular endothelial growth factor; Whooping cough; lipid phosphate phosphatase enzymes (LPPs); ovarian cancer (OC); Autotaxin (ATX); nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR); lysophosphatidic acid (LPA); electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS); phospholipase A2 enzymes (PLA2s); sphingosine-1 phosphate (S1P); G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR); cancer stem cell (CSC)
• ISSN: 2072-6694; 2072-6694
• DOI: 10.3390/cancers11101523

Since the clear demonstration of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)'s pathological roles in cancer in the mid-1990s, more than 1000 papers relating LPA to various types of cancer were published. Through these studies, LPA was established as a target for cancer. Although LPA-related inhibitors entered clinical trials for fibrosis, the concept of targeting LPA is yet to be moved to clinical cancer treatment. The major challenges that we are facing in moving LPA application from bench to bedside include the intrinsic and complicated metabolic, functional, and signaling properties of LPA, as well as technical issues, which are discussed in this review. Potential strategies and perspectives to improve the translational progress are suggested. Despite these challenges, we are optimistic that LPA blockage, particularly in combination with other agents, is on the horizon to be incorporated into clinical applications.