Neurotensin (NTS)-polyplex is a nanoparticle system for targeted gene delivery that holds great promise for treatment of Parkinson's disease and various types of cancer.
Many studies support a role for NTS in the endocrine, autocrine and paracrine growth stimulation of cancer, with oncogenic actions described for NTS in different types of cancers and cancer cell lines at each step of cancer progression, ranging from tumour growth and survival to metastatic spread.
Expression of NTS/NTSR1 on breast tumoral cells creates a cellular context associated with cancer aggressiveness by enhancing epidermal growth factor receptor activity.
Dysfunctional activation of neurotensin/IL-8 pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with increased inflammatory response in microenvironment, more epithelial mesenchymal transition in cancer and worse prognosis in patients.
We identified from the Cancer Gene Anatomy Project database (CGAP), a hit called neurotensin receptor (NT-r) that was expressed in the pancreatic cancer cDNA libraries.