Fig. 1: Non-canonical functions of spliceosome components in cancer progression.

Splicing perturbations are common in cancer and are associated with mutations, altered expression and/or localization of the components of the splicing machinery. Moreover, spliceosome components can be secreted by dying tumor cells as part of extracellular vesicles and penetrate recipient cells, thus ensuring their greater resistance to ongoing therapy. Both splicing factors and small nuclear RNAs may have functions not only related to pre-mRNA splicing, which contribute to every hallmark of cancer and all kinds of cellular processes. SF splicing factors, TF transcription factors, UTR untranslated region, EV extracellular vesicles.