New Advances of Heparanase in Human Diseases

Objective: This mini-review aims to discuss research works about heparanase published in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and provide a direction for therapy methods targeting heparanase. Patients and Methods: The relevant data were searched by using keywords “heparanase” “function”, “diseases” and “inhibitors” in “PubMed”, “Web of Science” and “China Knowledge Resource Integrated databases (CNKI)”, and a hand-search was done to acquire peer-reviewed articles and reports about heparanase. Results: Except for tumor progression, pathological processes including procoagulant activities, preeclamptic placentas, inflammation and so on are all verified to be associated with heparanase activity. Also, these newly-found functions are closely related to certain cellular activities, including epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT). Conclusion: It could be concluded that heparanase would be a potential and valuable therapy target.