E-cadherin

The i3S Epithelial Interactions in Cancer group coordinated a multidisciplinary team to address how germline alterations of E-cadherin trigger different clinical manifestations. The group was intrigued by the fact that loss of E-cadherin function may cause hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) and congenital malformations, such as orofacial clefts (OFC).

A ressecção cirúrgica e a quimioterapia perioperatória são a base universal para o tratamento curativo de doentes com cancro do estômago. No entanto, a sobrevida dos doentes com cancro do estômago nas regiões do mundo ocidental e oriental continua a ser muito distinta.

Authors and Affiliations:

Authors and Affiliations:

Soraia Melo ^1,2,3, Joana Figueiredo ^1,2, Maria Sofia Fernandes ^1,2,4, Margarida Gonçalves ^1,5, Eurico Morais-de-Sá ^1,5, João Miguel Sanches ⁴ and Raquel Seruca ^1,2,3

¹ Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (i3S), University of Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal

² Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology, University of Porto (IPATIMUP), 4200-135 Porto, Portugal

Authors and Affiliations:

Authors and Affiliations:
Caldeira J ¹*, Figueiredo J ²*, Brás-Pereira C ³, Carneiro P ², Moreira AM ², Pinto MT ², Relvas JB ⁴, Carneiro F ⁵, Barbosa M ⁶, Casares F ⁷, Janody F ³, Seruca R ⁸.
*The authours contributed equally

Authors and Affiliations:

Authors and Affiliations:

Autores e Afiliações:

Cancer cells often express a massive amount of proteins that are needed to their own proliferation.  One of the molecular abnormalities related to tumour progression, invasion and fixation requires the impairment of E-cadh expression, a tumour invasion suppressor protein. Epithelial‑mesenchymal transitions (EMT), is associated with the silencing of E-cad expression and further expression of EMT related molecules, such as Akt2 and Twist, crucial for progression of non-invasive into a malignant metastatic carcinomas, due to a polarity and adhesion loss between adjacent cells.