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Updated: Oct 10, 2025

Highly Sensitive and Quantitative Detection of Proteins and Their Isoforms by Capillary Isoelectric Focusing Method
07:58

Highly Sensitive and Quantitative Detection of Proteins and Their Isoforms by Capillary Isoelectric Focusing Method

Published on: September 19, 2018

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Probing Isoform Switching Events in Various Cancer Types: Lessons From Pan-Cancer Studies

Tülay Karakulak1,2,3, Holger Moch2,4, Christian von Mering1,3

  • 1Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
|December 10, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Alternative splicing regulates gene expression and protein diversity. In cancer, altered splicing creates distinct protein isoforms, impacting disease progression and therapeutic strategies.

Area of Science:

  • Molecular Biology
  • Genomics
  • Bioinformatics

Background:

  • Alternative splicing is a key regulator of gene expression in mammals, generating protein diversity.
  • Dysregulation of alternative splicing is a hallmark of cancer, leading to altered protein isoform expression.
  • Recent advances in sequencing and analysis have revealed the extent and impact of aberrant splicing in cancer.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the molecular mechanisms of alternative splicing.
  • To describe the role of alternative splicing in healthy tissues and its disruption in cancer.
  • To compare computational tools and pan-cancer study strategies for analyzing splicing events.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of molecular mechanisms and functions of alternative splicing.
  • Summary of computational tools for analyzing differential transcript usage and isoform switching.
  • Comparative analysis of recent pan-cancer studies on isoform switching events.

Main Results:

  • Alternative splicing contributes to protein, cellular, and species diversity.
  • Cancer-specific splicing events lead to pathogenic protein isoforms.
  • Comparison of pan-cancer studies highlights methodological similarities and discrepancies.

Conclusions:

  • Understanding disrupted alternative splicing in cancer is crucial for diagnostics and therapeutics.
  • Development of robust methods for cancer-specific transcript detection is needed.
  • Improved prediction of functional impacts of isoform switching events will advance cancer research.
Keywords:
alternative splicingbioinformatics tools and databasesdifferential transcript usageisoform switchingpan-cancer analysis

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