Figure 1.

Schematic overview of regulation of mRNA translation and targeting possibilities in CRC. A large number of translation factors, signaling pathways, and ribosomal components are involved in the regulation of mRNA translation in general, and in particular in CRC. Different targeting strategies for interfering with deregulated protein synthesis have been developed as potential therapeutics, but clinical efficacy has been limited so far. For simplicity, only translation factors and signaling proteins are shown, which are described as potential therapeutic targets in the text (discussed in detail in Section 4). Black lines with arrow: activating signal; black lines with T bar: inhibitory signal; red lines with T bar: inhibition by small molecules or other substances; violet dots: amino acids generating a polypeptide chain, yellow dot: phosphorylation; green dot: 7-methylguanosine cap of mRNA; TC: ternary complex; ISR: integrated stress response; RNA pol I–III: RNA polymerase I–III.