The attributes of plakins in cancer and disease: perspectives on ovarian cancer progression, chemoresistance and recurrence

Abstract

The plakin family of cytoskeletal proteins play an important role in cancer progression yet are under-studied in cancer, especially ovarian cancer. These large cytoskeletal proteins have primary roles in the maintenance of cytoskeletal integrity but are also associated with scaffolds of intermediate filaments and hemidesmosomal adhesion complexes mediating signalling pathways that regulate cellular growth, migration, invasion and differentiation as well as stress response. Abnormalities of plakins, and the closely related spectraplakins, result in diseases of the skin, striated muscle and nervous tissue. Their prevalence in epithelial cells suggests that plakins may play a role in epithelial..