Epithelial cell adhesion molecule

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule
Identifiers
Symbols EPCAM; DIAR5; EGP-2; EGP314; EGP40; ESA; GA733-2; HNPCC8; KS1/4; KSA; M4S1; MIC18; MK-1; TACSTD1; TROP1
External IDs OMIM185535 MGI106653 HomoloGene1764 GeneCards: EPCAM Gene
RNA expression pattern
More reference expression data
Orthologs
Species Human Mouse
Entrez 4072 17075
Ensembl ENSG00000119888 ENSMUSG00000045394
UniProt P16422 n/a
RefSeq (mRNA) NM_002354 NM_008532.2
RefSeq (protein) NP_002345 NP_032558.2
Location (UCSC) Chr 2:
47.57 – 47.61 Mb
Chr 17:
88.04 – 88.05 Mb
PubMed search [1] [2]

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the EPCAM gene.[1][2][3] EpCAM has also been designated as TACSTD1 (tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 1) and CD326 (cluster of differentiation 326).

Contents

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Function

EpCAM is a pan-epithelial differentiation antigen that is expressed on almost all carcinomas. Its constitutional function is being elucidated. It is intricately linked with the Cadherin-Catenin pathway and hence the fundamental WNT pathway responsible for intracellular signalling and polarity. It has been used as an immunotherapeutic target in the treatment of gastrointestinal, urological and other carcinomas.[4] It is expressed in undifferentiated pluripotent stem cells.[5]

It is identical with the 17-1A antigen.[6]

Clinical significance

EpCAM is a carcinoma-associated antigen and is a member of a family that includes at least two type I membrane proteins. This antigen is expressed on most normal epithelial cells and gastrointestinal carcinomas and functions as a homotypic calcium-independent cell adhesion molecule. The antigen is being used as a target for immunotherapy treatment of human carcinomas.[3]

Edrecolomab, catumaxomab and other monoclonal antibodies are designed to bind to it.[7]

References

  1. ^ Linnenbach AJ, Seng BA, Wu S, Robbins S, Scollon M, Pyrc JJ, Druck T, Huebner K (Apr 1993). "Retroposition in a family of carcinoma-associated antigen genes". Mol Cell Biol 13 (3): 1507–15. PMC 359462. PMID 8382772. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=359462. 
  2. ^ Calabrese G, Crescenzi C, Morizio E, Palka G, Guerra E, Alberti S (Apr 2001). "Assignment of TACSTD1 (alias TROP1, M4S1) to human chromosome 2p21 and refinement of mapping of TACSTD2 (alias TROP2, M1S1) to human chromosome 1p32 by in situ hybridization". Cytogenet Cell Genet 92 (1-2): 164–5. doi:10.1159/000056891. PMID 11306819. 
  3. ^ a b "Entrez Gene: TACSTD1 tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 1". http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=gene&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=4072. 
  4. ^ Chaudry MA, Sales K, Ruf P, Lindhofer H, Winslet MC (April 2007). "EpCAM an immunotherapeutic target for gastrointestinal malignancy: current experience and future challenges". Br. J. Cancer 96 (7): 1013–9. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6603505. PMC 2360124. PMID 17325709. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2360124. 
  5. ^ Sundberg, M; Jansson, L; Ketolainen, J; Pihlajamäki, H; Suuronen, R; Skottman, H; Inzunza, J; Hovatta, O et al. (2009). "CD marker expression profiles of human embryonic stem cells and their neural derivatives, determined using flow-cytometric analysis, reveal a novel CD marker for exclusion of pluripotent stem cells.". Stem cell research 2 (2): 113–24. doi:10.1016/j.scr.2008.08.001. PMID 19383417. 
  6. ^ Balzar M, Winter MJ, de Boer CJ, Litvinov SV (October 1999). "The biology of the 17-1A antigen (Ep-CAM)". J. Mol. Med. 77 (10): 699–712. doi:10.1007/s001099900038. PMID 10606205. 
  7. ^ Punt CJ, Nagy A, Douillard JY, Figer A, Skovsgaard T, Monson J, Barone C, Fountzilas G, Riess H, Moylan E, Jones D, Dethling J, Colman J, Coward L, MacGregor S (August 2002). "Edrecolomab alone or in combination with fluorouracil and folinic acid in the adjuvant treatment of stage III colon cancer: a randomised study". Lancet 360 (9334): 671–7. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)09836-7. PMID 12241873. 

Further reading

External links

This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.