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. 2021 Apr 21;13(9):2005. doi: 10.3390/cancers13092005

Table 1.

A glance of tumor-promoting and suppressing roles of tetraspanin molecules across human epithelia-origin cancers *.

Genes Pro-Malignant Roles Tumor-Suppressive Roles
CD151

  • Promote prostate cancer malignancy by impacting cancer stem cells and tumor metastasis [36,37].

  • Promote breast cancer cell proliferation and invasion through regulation of TGF-β1/SMAD pathway [38].

  • Support tumor invasive behaviors via control of RhoA signaling [39].

  • Drive glioblastoma malignancy by supporting tumor cell migration, CSCs and exosome release [40,41,42,43].

  • Promote tumor progression via sustaining collective cell migration and signaling in skin carcinoma [44,45].

  • Suppress prostate cancer metastasis via regulation of cell-cell contact and EMT [46,47].

  • Suppress inflammatory breast cancer through regulation of macrophage recruitment [48].

  • Suppress tumor cell proliferation and invasion in lobular breast cancer subtype and ovarian cancer [49,50].

  • Trigger anti-tumor immunity in breast cancer [51].
CD9

  • Promote tumorigenesis in breast cancer [52].

  • Support pancreatic cancer development via regulation of cancer stem cells and glutamine metabolism [27].

  • Suppress lung cancer metastasis [53].
CD81

  • Promote breast cancer metastasis [2].

  • Support metastatic progression in breast cancer and osteosarcoma [54,55].

  • Suppress bladder cancer cell invasion [56].
CD82

  • Promote EMT in liver cancer and metastatic potential of malignant prostate carcinoma PC-3 cell line [35,57].

  • Suppress tumor cell migration and invasion [58].

  • Suppress melanoma motility by interfering CD44 splicing [59].

  • Suppress EMT in prostate cancer [34].

  • Repress tumor cell motility through control of extracellular vesicle production and architecture of plasma membrane [60].
TSPAN12

  • Promote breast cancer metastasis through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway [61].

  • Drive impact of tumor-associated fibroblasts on tumor cell invasion [62].

  • Suppress tumor progression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) [63].
TSPAN8

  • Support cancer stem cells via Sonic Hedgehog pathway [64,65].

  • Promote tumor cell invasion and metastasis [25,30,66].

  • Suppress NSCLC metastasis by affecting activity of extracellular vesicles [67].

*: A small fraction of studies listed are on melanoma or glioblastoma. CSC, cancer stem cell; EMT, epithelial-mesenchymal transition.