Natriuretic peptide receptor A as a novel target for cancer

The receptor for the cardiac hormone atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPR-A), has been reported to be expressed in lung cancer, prostate cancer and ovarian cancer. NPR-A expression and signaling is important for tumor growth; its deficiency protects C57BL/6 mice from lung, skin and ovarian cancers. This suggests that NPR-A is a new marker and a new target for cancer therapy. Recently, NPR-A has been demonstrated to be expressed in pre-implantation embryos and in embryonic stem cells, which has a novel role in the maintenance of self-renewal and pluripotency of embryonic stem cells. A nanoparticle-formulated interfering RNA for NPR-A attenuated B16 melanoma tumors in mice. Ectopic expression of a plasmid encoding NP73-102, the NH2-terminal peptide of the ANP prohormone which downregulates NPR-A expression, also suppressed lung metastasis of A549 cells in nude mice and tumorigenesis of Line 1 cells in immunocompetent BALB/c mice. These results suggest that NPR-A is involved in tumorigenesis and a new target for cancer therapy. This review focuses on structure, abnormal functions and carcinogenic mechanisms of NPR-A to investigate its role in tumorigenesis.