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Review

Yin Yang 1 expression in human tumors

Apostolos Zaravinos and Demetrios A. Spandidos

The Yin Yang 1 (YY1) transcription factor has been identified to target a plethora of potential target genes, the products of which are important for proliferation and differentiation. The mechanisms of YY1 action are related to its ability to initiate, activate, or repress transcription depending on the context in which it binds. This article sheds a light on the role that YY1 plays in different human types of cancer, through the context of its expression levels. Moreover, we concentrate on the most relevant studies that have focused on YY1 regulation. We performed computational analysis on thirty-six publicly available Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets, to further understand whether differences in YY1 transcript levels occur in different cancer types when compared with relative normal tissue, benign tumor or its metastatic counterpart. Our results suggest a dual role of YY1 in cancer development, either through over-expression or under-expression, depending on the tumor type.

Authors

Apostolos Zaravinos

University of Crete; Crete, Greece

Demetrios A. Spandidos Corresponding author: spandidos@spandidos.gr

University of Crete; Crete, Greece