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Gene & Protein in Disease

REVIEW ARTICLE
Basic and clinical insights of Mu (µ)-opioid

receptor in cancer

1†
Ruidong Ding , Yiming Zhao , Jia Li , Siyuan Zhao , Dingyuan Su ,
1†
1
1
1†
2
Yue Zhang , Jia-Yi Wang , Shuangyu Lv *, and Xinying Ji *
3
1
1
1 Institute of Molecular Medicine, Henan International Joint Laboratory for Nuclear Protein Regulation,
School of Basic Medical Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan 475004, China
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 988 Hospital of PLA, Zhengzhou, Henan 450000, China
3 San-Quan College, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453003, China
Abstract
Cancer is a public health problem that is extremely harmful to people’s health.
Most cancer patients experience severe pain in the advanced stage, which will
seriously affect their prognosis. At present, opioids, such as morphine, have been
used as the drug of choice for treating moderate to severe cancer-related pain.
Mu (µ)-opioid receptor (MOR) is expressed in many different cancer cells. In this
article, we present the relationship between MOR and tumor pathophysiology;
summarize the molecular mechanism and effect of MOR on tumor proliferation
and progression, tumor angiogenesis, tumor immunity, and cancer therapy; and
propose the future research direction of MOR for cancer treatment. MOR could
† These authors have contributed be as a promising prognostic biomarker and immune checkpoint in cancer
equally to this work. therapy.
*Corresponding authors:
Shuangyu Lv
(shuangyulv@163.com) Keywords: Opioids; Mu-opioid receptor; Cancer; Angiogenesis; Immunotherapy
Xinying Ji
(10190096@vip.henu.edu.cn)
Citation: Ding R, Zhao Y, Li J,
et al., 2023, Basic and clinical 1. Introduction
insights of Mu (µ)-opioid receptor in
cancer. Gene Protein Dis, 2(2):282. Cancer is one of the biggest public health problems in the world that endangers
https://doi.org/10.36922/gpd.282
human health. In 2020, the number of cancer cases worldwide was 19,292,789, and
Received: December 1, 2022 the number of deaths was 9,958,133, according to the Global Cancer Observatory
Accepted: March 13, 2023 (GLOBOCAN) [1,2] . Among the different types of cancer, lung cancer, colorectal
cancer (CRC), stomach cancer, liver cancer (LC), and breast cancer (BC) have the
Published Online: March 29, 2023
highest detection rates . However, the methods used in cancer treatment, such as
[3]
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, have not been able to completely cure the
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the tumor. Therefore, it is an urgent matter for researchers to explore efficient methods
Creative Commons Attribution that can be used to treat cancer. This requires a comprehensive understanding of
License, permitting distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, which the pathophysiological process of tumor occurrence and development in vivo. The
provided that the original work is imbalance of epigenetic mechanisms is thought to play a key role in the occurrence
properly cited. and development of tumors [4,5] . In addition to the epigenetic imbalance of classic
Publisher’s Note: AccScience proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, there is new evidence that tissue-
Publishing remains neutral with specific genes may also be targets for cancer epigenetic disorders [6-9] . The balance
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional between pro-angiogenic factors and anti-angiogenic factors has a significant impact
affiliations. on tumorigenesis [10,11] .

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/gpd.282