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World J Immunol. Jul 27, 2015; 5(2): 78-85
Published online Jul 27, 2015. doi: 10.5411/wji.v5.i2.78
GRP78 expression beyond cellular stress: A biomarker for tumor manipulation
Britta Hardy, Annat Raiter
Britta Hardy, Annat Raiter, Felsenstein Medical Research Center, Tel-Aviv University School of Medicine, Rabin Medical Center, Petach Tikva 49100, Israel
Author contributions: Hardy B and Raiter A designed, performed, analyzed and wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Correspondence to: Britta Hardy, PhD, Professor, Director, Felsenstein Medical Research Center, Tel-Aviv University School of Medicine, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Campus, Petach Tikva 49100, Israel. brittah23@gmail.com
Telephone: +972-54-7527482 Fax: +972-3-6419735
Received: December 7, 2014
Peer-review started: December 9, 2014
First decision: December 26, 2014
Revised: January 14, 2015
Accepted: June 4, 2015
Article in press: June 8, 2015
Published online: July 27, 2015
Processing time: 239 Days and 17.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: In the prolonged chronic stress transportation of the GRP78 from the endoplasmic reticulum to the cell membrane is a major event where in addition to the presentation of the GRP78 as a receptor to various ligands, it also marks the cells that will proceed to apoptotic pathways. In the normal cell that under stress acquires cell surface GRP78 and in the tumor cell that already presents cell surface GRP78, cell surface GRP78 is an apoptotic flag. This review analyzes the input of cell surface GRP78 on apoptosis in normal and tumor cells.