REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1658526
This article is part of the Research TopicPrecision Medicine and Targeted Therapies in Gastrointestinal and Genitourinary Solid TumorsView all 17 articles
Post-Transcriptional Regulation by HuR in Colorectal Cancer: Impacts on Tumor Progression and Therapeutic Strategies
Provisionally accepted
- 1Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- 3Zhejiang University School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hangzhou, China
- 4University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, United States
- 5The University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common malignancy worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Its progression is driven by genetic and epigenetic alterations, with increasing evidence emphasizing the role of the transcriptome, particularly post-transcriptional modifications. Human antigen R (HuR), an RNA-binding protein (RBP), plays a crucial role in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. In the context of tumor progression, HuR affects a range of cellular processes, including cell proliferation, survival, and metabolic reprogramming, via regulating target mRNA stability and translation. Additionally, HuR influences the tumor microenvironment (TME) through modulating target mRNAs involved in inflammation, immune responses, extracellular matrix remodeling and angiogenesis. Despite these insights, the precise mechanisms by which HuR regulates post-transcriptional process in CRC remain unclear. This review first provides an overview of HuR's roles and the underlying mechanisms involved in CRC progression, including its regulation of mRNA expression, control of the cell cycle, and modulation of the TME. We also discussed the potential of HuR as a therapeutic target, exploring how targeting HuR could slow down CRC progression and metastasis, ultimately leading to more effective and personalized treatment strategies.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, RNA-Binding Proteins, Human antigen R, post-transcriptional regulation, therapeutic strategies
Received: 02 Jul 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shi, Zhou, Liu, Liu, Xie, Chen, Dixon, Wu and Yang. 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: Lingling Yang, eleanyang2008@163.com
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