Fatores Trefoil e sua associação com o câncer gastrointestinal: uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

Trefoil Factors, referred to as Trefoil Factor Family (TFF) domain peptides, have a structure tightly joined by three disulfide bridges. The Trefoil Factors have a broad relationship with the protection of the digestive tract, including defense against infections by pathogenic microorganisms, lesions, chronic inflammation and especially neoplasms. Considering such relevance, the present workproposed, through a scoping review, to compile clinical and experimental publications related to the Trefoil Factors action in the gastrointestinal tract. . For this, searches were made in the PubMed, EBSCO and Cochrane databases with the descriptors in English language Trefoil factors AND Stomach Neoplasms. Only the works of the last 5 years that were in agreement with the proposed theme were included in the study. After the search, 67 articles were obtained, 32 of them in the PubMed database, 32 in EBSCO and 3 in Cochrane. Twenty-eight articles were excluded because they were duplicated. After reading the title and the abstract of the papers, 33 articles were included for reading in full. At the end of the reading of the full texts, 21 articles were included in the study. The bibliographical research shows that the factors TFF1 and TFF2 act in the protection of the gastric mucosa and the lack or disarrangement of these molecules is correlated with the potential development of malignant lesions. On the other hand, TFF3 has higher production in the goblet cells of the intestine and in the gastric antrum, and its overexpression is associated with deep invasions of cancer cells and lymph node metastases. Therefore, the literature shows that the peptides belonging to the Trefoil family, especially TFF1, TFF2 and TFF3, have an intrinsic relationship with inhibiting or contributing to tumor development, especially in the gastrointestinal tract. Additional studies are necessary to identify the mechanism of action of these substances, contributing to possibility that these signaling start to be used to establish prognoses for patients with neoplasms.