Unconventional prefoldin RPB5 interactor (URI, or RMP, a member of the prefoldin family of molecular chaperones) exhibits oncogenic activity in several types of cancer, including ovarian cancer.
In order to assess the function of Acrogranin (also known as granulin epithelial precursor; GEP) in ovarian carcinogenesis, ovarian surface epithelial (OSE) cells, which are supposed to be the origin of primary ovarian epithelial cancer, were transfected with combined genes of hTERT, SV40 LT, and Acrogranin.
Differential granulin expression in tumor samples and the antiproliferative effects of its antisense down-regulation suggest that GEP may be a new autocrine growth factor and molecular target for epithelial ovarian cancer.