Current Issues in Molecular Biology (Jan 2024)

Nerve Growth Factor and the Role of Inflammation in Tumor Development

  • Giampiero Ferraguti,
  • Sergio Terracina,
  • Luigi Tarani,
  • Francesca Fanfarillo,
  • Sara Allushi,
  • Brunella Caronti,
  • Paola Tirassa,
  • Antonella Polimeni,
  • Marco Lucarelli,
  • Luca Cavalcanti,
  • Antonio Greco,
  • Marco Fiore

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cimb46020062
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 46, no. 2
pp. 965 – 989

Abstract

Read online

Nerve growth factor (NGF) plays a dual role both in inflammatory states and cancer, acting both as a pro-inflammatory and oncogenic factor and as an anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic mediator in a context-dependent way based on the signaling networks and its interaction with diverse cellular components within the microenvironment. This report aims to provide a summary and subsequent review of the literature on the role of NGF in regulating the inflammatory microenvironment and tumor cell growth, survival, and death. The role of NGF in inflammation and tumorigenesis as a component of the inflammatory system, its interaction with the various components of the respective microenvironments, its ability to cause epigenetic changes, and its role in the treatment of cancer have been highlighted in this paper.

Keywords