Research prospect of cortistatin and its expression regulation

Discovered in 1996, cortistatin (CST) is a neuropeptide from the somatostatin (SRIF)/urotensin (UII) family. It is widely distributed in the central nervous system, endocrine system and immune system. Experiments on humans and animals show that CST can bind with somatastin receptor, growth hormone receptor and MAS-related gene X2 (MrgX2) receptor. CST is also involved in various physiological, biochemical and pathological processes, such as regulating learning and memory, inducing slow-wave sleep, protecting nerves with ischemic injury, participating in inflammation, inhibiting vascular endothelial cell proliferation and immigration, lessening angiosteosis, and being expressed abnormally in some tumors. However, its specific receptor and signal pathway as well as the mechanism of the exact physiological action remain unclear till now. Currently, some research has gradually focused on CST's expression and regulation in tumors of human central nervous system in the hope of making new findings of the pathogenesis of brain tumor as well as its clinical diagnosis and treatment.