Nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK/NM23) and the waltz with multiple partners: possible consequences in tumor metastasis.

Tumor metastasis is responsible for a high degree of mortality in cancer patients. One of the genes involved in tumor metastasis is NM23. At present, eight human isoforms, transcribed from different NM23 genes, have been detected. The gene products have been identified as nucleoside diphosphate kinases (NDPKs), most of which catalyse the transfer of the gamma-phosphate of a (deoxy)nucleoside triphosphate to a (deoxy)nucleoside diphosphate. However, the function of NDPK isoforms involved in tumor metastasis cannot be explained on the basis of their phosphotransferase activity alone. At present, several other properties, like transcriptional regulation and protein kinase activity, have been assigned to these proteins. Moreover, it has also been shown that NDPKs interact with several other proteins, and binding partners of NDPKs are identified at an increasing rate. Accumulating evidence indicates that protein-protein interactions modulate the molecular action of NDPKs. In this review we provide a brief overview of how NDPKs are correlated with cancer, and discuss when and how the activities assigned to NDPKs may affect metastasis, with special emphasis on the role of protein-NDPK interactions in this process.