Recent advances in the ARID family: focusing on roles in human cancer

Abstract

Chen Lin,1 Wei Song,2 Xinyu Bi,1 Jianjun Zhao,1 Zhen Huang,1 Zhiyu Li,1 Jianguo Zhou,1 Jianqiang Cai,1 Hong Zhao1 1Department of Abdominal Surgical Oncology, Cancer Hospital, 2National Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People's Republic of China Abstract: The human AT-rich interaction domain (ARID) family contains seven subfamilies and 15 members characterized by having an ARID. Members of the ARID family have the ability to regulate transcription and are involved in cell differentiation and proliferation. Accumulating evidence suggests that ARID family members are involved in cancer-related signaling pathways, highly mutated or differentially expressed in tumor tissues, and act as predictive factors for cancer prognosis or therapeutic outcome. Here we review the molecular biology and clinical studies concerned with the role played by the ARID family in cancer. This may contribute to our understanding of the initiation and progression of cancer from a novel point of view, as well as providing potential targets for cancer therapy. Keywords: AT-rich interaction domain, human cancer, cancer-related signaling pathway, therapy, potential targets