New findings of heparanase in human diseases

H. Jin, M. Cui, S.-X. Hu

The Second Department of General Surgery, Zhuhai People’s Hospital, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China. jh199003240014@126.com

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• Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: This mini-review aims to discuss research works about heparanase published in 2017 and 2018 and provide a direction for therapy methods targeting heparanase.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The relevant data were searched by using keywords “heparanase”, “function”, “diseases” and “inhibitors” in “PubMed, “Web of Science” and “China Knowledge Resource Integrated databases (CNKI)”, and a hand-search was done to acquire peer-reviewed articles and reports about heparanase.

RESULTS: Except for tumor progression, pathological processes including procoagulant activities, preeclamptic placentas, inflammation and so on are all verified to be associated with heparanase activity. Also, these newly-found functions are closely connected to certain cellular activities, including epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT).

CONCLUSIONS: It could be concluded that heparanase would be a potential and valuable therapeutic target.

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