KPNA2 predicts long term survival in patients with anaplastic oligoastrocytomas

Diversification of importin-α isoforms in cellular trafficking and disease states

“…In most cases, the up-regulation of the KPNA2 gene (encoding importin α1, see Table 1) indicates a poor prognosis, making it a useful biomarker in breast [100], ovarian [101], cervical [102], prostate [103] and bladder [104] cancer, melanoma [105], squamous cell carcinoma [106], hepatocellular carcinoma [107], lung cancer [108], astrocytic glioma [109] and anaplastic oligoastrocytoma [110]. In some cases, knock down of importin α1 with siRNA could reduce the proliferation of cancerous cells [103,108], but in others it had no effect [102].…”

“…It was found that knockdown of KPNA2 reduced tumour volume, whereas increased expression of KPNA2 increased tumour volume [111]. Other nucleocytoplasmic transporters, such as importin β [102] and CRM1 [102,110], are also found to be up-regulated in some cancers. One proposed mechanism for this up-regulation is the deregulated activity of the E2F transcription factor, which can up-regulate both KPNA2 and the importin-β gene [112].…”

SASH1, a new potential link between smoking and atherosclerosis

“…Interestingly we found an upregulation of karyopherin alpha 2 (KPNA2) an importin subunit involved in the recognition of the NLS complex in our experiments upon SASH1 knockdown. KPNA2 expression affects cell proliferation and migration in a wide range of human cancer cells 206,207,208 , including breast cancer 209 , moreover it is over-expressed in cancer tissues and its expression correlates with poor survival 210 . KPNA2 was also shown to be a target for p53 211 .…”

Targeting nuclear transporters in cancer: Diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic potential

“…The value of nuclear transporters such as KPNB1, XPO1 and CSE1L as prognostic tools is still under investigation and data supporting this are only available for a select few cancers. In contrast, KPNA2 has been well established as a prognostic marker in various cancers including: breast cancer, brain cancer, gastric cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, lung cancer and oesophageal cancer . Dahl et al's research in breast cancer was the first to identify KPNA2 as a prognostic marker .…”

“…Since then high nuclear KPNA2 expression has been linked to poor patient outcome. Numerous studies have shown that KPNA2 expression correlates with overall and progression‐free survival in patients and established KPNA2 as an independent prognostic marker when compared to other clinical data ( 10 , ). Interestingly, KPNA2 expression also predicted the chances of metastasis as well as histological grade and clinical stage of tumours.…”