Title:WISP1: Clinical Insights for a Proliferative and Restorative Member of the CCN Family
VOLUME: 11 ISSUE: 4
Author(s):Kenneth Maiese
Affiliation:Cellular and Molecular Signaling, Newark, New Jersey 07101, USA.
Keywords:Akt, Alzheimer's, amyloid, apoptosis, autophagy, β-catenin, bone, cancer, cardiac, caspase, CCN4, erythropoietin,
fibrosis, forkhead transcription factor, FoxO3a, liver, lung, metastases, miRNA, mTOR, PRAS40, pulmonary, sirtuin, SIRT1,
stem cell, WISP1, Wnt.
Abstract:As a proliferative and restorative entity, Wnt1 inducible signaling pathway protein 1 (WISP1) is emerging as a
novel target for a number of therapeutic strategies that are relevant for disorders such as traumatic injury,
neurodegeneration, musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary compromise, and control of tumor
growth as well as distant metastases. WISP1, a target of the wingless pathway Wnt1, oversees cellular mechanisms that
include apoptosis, autophagy, cellular migration, stem cell proliferation, angiogenesis, immune cell modulation, and
tumorigenesis. The signal transduction pathways of WISP1 are broad and involve phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-K),
protein kinase B (Akt), mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinase, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), caspases, forkhead
transcription factors, sirtuins, c-myc, glycogen synthase kinase -3β (GSK-3β), β-catenin, miRNAs, and the mechanistic
target of rapamaycin (mTOR). Ultimately, these signal transduction pathways of WISP1 can result in varied and
sometimes unpredictable outcomes especially for cell survival, tissue repair, and tumorigenesis that demand increased
insight into the critical role WISP1 holds for cellular biology and clinical medicine.
