Balancing neurotrophin pathway and sortilin function: its role in human disease

Neurotensin receptor-3 or sortilin is a vacuolar protein sorting 10 protein domain (Vps10p) has been firstly discovered in the human brain, it acts as receptor or co-receptor of the cell and traffics different proteins within the cell. Sortilin deregulation contributes to the development of several diseases, including neurological diseases and cancer. On the other hand, neurotrophins which are a family of proteins essential for the nervous system development, function and plasticity. The first discovered member is the nerve growth factor; other members are brain-derived growth factor, neurotrophin-3 and neurotrophin-4. Nerve growth factor and brain-derived growth factor are the common neurotrophins that have a role in cancer. Neurotrophins initiate their signals through interaction with tyrosine receptor kinases TrkA, TrkB, and TrkC; each member has an affinity for a specific receptor to stimulate cell survival, while the interaction with p75NTR initiates cell apoptosis pathway by forming a complex with sortilin and neurotrophin precursors. A number of therapeutic approaches are emerging to target the neurotrophins pathway as well as sortilin.