Kelch-like proteins in the gastrointestinal tumors

Gastrointestinal tumors have become a worldwide health problem with high morbidity and poor clinical outcomes. Chemotherapy and surgery, the main treatment methods, are still far from meeting the treatment needs of patients, and targeted therapy is in urgent need of development. Recently, emerging evidence suggests that kelch-like (KLHL) proteins play essential roles in maintaining proteostasis and are involved in the progression of various cancers, functioning as adaptors in the E3 ligase complex and promoting the specific degradation of substrates. Therefore, KLHL proteins should be taken into consideration for targeted therapy strategy discovery. This review summarizes the current knowledge of KLHL proteins in gastrointestinal tumors and discusses the potential of KLHL proteins as potential drug targets and prognostic biomarkers.