Although heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is part of an endogenous defense system implicated in the homeostatic response, its role in cell proliferation and tumor progression is still controversial.
Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) is crucially involved in cell adaptation to oxidative stress and has been demonstrated to play an important role in cancer progression and resistance to therapies.
While there is consensus that translocated HO-1 promotes tumor progression and drug resistance, the physiological signals leading to SPP-mediated intramembrane cleavage of HO-1 and the specificity of the process remain unclear.
In this review, we summarize the current literature regarding the pro-tumorigenic role of HO-1 dependent tumor progression as a promising target in anticancer strategy.
Taken together, our data suggest that HO-1 expression is functionally linked to the mediation of tumor progression and metastasis of CRC cells by inhibiting antitumor immunity.
These findings disclose that SPP-mediated intramembrane cleavage of HO-1 promotes HO-1 nuclear localization and cancer progression independent of HO-1 enzymatic activity.
This review highlights the roles of Nrf2 and HO-1 in proliferation of cancer cells, their tolerance/resistance to anticancer treatments, and metastasis or angiogenesis in tumor progression.