The Roles of the Phosphatases of Regenerating Liver (PRLs) in Oncology and Normal Physiology

The phosphatases of regenerating liver are a subfamily of protein tyrosine phosphatases that consist of PRL1, PRL2 and PRL3. The overexpression of PRLs promote cell proliferation, migration and invasion and contribute to tumorigenesis and metastasis to aggravate survival outcome. Although there is increasing interest in understanding the implication of these phosphatases in tumor development, currently, limited knowledge is available about their mechanism of action and the efficacy of PRL inhibition in in vivo tumor models, the tumor extrinsic role of PRLs that allow them to impact tumor development, as well as in vivo physiological function of PRLs that could implicate them in diseases other than cancer. The work presented here aims to address these limitations.