Opioids in cancer: The κ‑opioid receptor (Review)

作者：Qier Zhou, Zhiwei Zhang, Songkai Long, Wanjun Li, Baiyun Wang, Na Liang · 发表于：Molecular Medicine Reports · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.3892/mmr.2021.12560 · 被引用次数：28 · 研究领域：Cancer, Stress, Anesthesia, and Immune Response、Neuropeptides and Animal Physiology、Peptidase Inhibition and Analysis

The κ‑opioid receptor (KOR) is one of the primary receptors of opioids and serves a vital role in the regulation of pain, anesthesia, addiction and other pathological and physiological processes. KOR is associated with several types of cancer and may influence cancer progression. It has been proposed that KOR may represent a new tumor molecular marker and provide a novel basis for molecular targeted therapies for cancer. However, the association between KOR and cancer remains to be explored comprehensively. The present review introduces KOR and its association with different types of cancer. Improved understanding of KOR may facilitate development of novel antitumor therapies.