چکیده :
Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), a cytosolic ligand-activated transcription factor, belongs to the member of
bHLH/PAS family of heterodimeric transcriptional regulators and is widely expressed in a variety of animal
species and humans. Recent animal and human data suggested that AHR is involved in various signaling pathways
critical to cell normal homeostasis, which covers multiple aspects of physiology, such as cell proliferation
and differentiation, gene regulation, cell motility and migration, inflammation and others. Dysregulation of
these physiological processes is known to contribute to events such as tumor initiation, promotion, and progression.
Increasing epidemiological and experimental animal data provided substantial support for an association
between abnormal AHR function and cancer, implicating AHR may be a novel drug-interfering
target for cancers. The proposed underlying mechanisms of its actions in cancer involved multiple aspects,
(a) inhibiting the functional expression of the key anti-oncogenes (such as p53 and BRCA1), (b) promoting
stem cells transforming and angiogenesis, (c) altering cell survival, proliferation and differentiation by
influencing the physiologic processes of cell-cycle, apoptosis, cell contact-inhibition, metabolism and remodel
of extracellular matrix, and cell–matrix interaction, (d) cross-talking with the signaling pathways
of estrogen receptor and inflammation. This reviewaims to provide a brief overviewof recent investigations
into the role of AHR and the underlying mechanisms of its actions in cancer, which were explored by the
new technologies emerging in recent years
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