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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

Sec. Cancer Cell Biology

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1637451

This article is part of the Research TopicThe Ubiquitin-Proteasome System and Cellular Signaling: Mechanisms and Regulatory Roles in Cancer and Infectious Diseases.View all articles

TRIM21: A Multifaceted Regulator in Cancer

Provisionally accepted
Aizhuo  LiAizhuo LiJiannan  WangJiannan WangYi  QuYi Qu*
  • The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Ubiquitination serves as a dynamic post-translational modification that enables rapid and precise regulation of cellular signaling networks. TRIM21, as an important member of the TRIM family, is a protein with E3 ubiquitin ligase activity. By specifically recognizing and ubiquitinating various substrate proteins, it plays a pivotal regulatory role in tumorigenesis and development. Moreover, TRIM21 has been found to play a multi-faceted role in cellular autophagy, metabolic reprogramming, immune escape, tumor proliferation, metastasis and resistance to cell death by regulating the stability and function of key proteins. In this review, we provided an in-depth understanding of the specific mechanism of TRIM21 in different biological processes and tumor types, which contributes to the development of novel targeted therapeutic strategies targeting TRIM21.

Keywords: Cancer, ubiquination, Metabolism, Autophagy, Immunity

Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Li, Wang and Qu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Yi Qu, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China

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