KUO-SHYANG JENG¹, PO-YU CHENG², YUEH-HSIEN LIN², PO-CHUN LIU², PING-HUI TSENG³, YU-CHAO WANG⁴, CHIUNG-FANG CHANG⁵, CHUEN-MIIN LEU^2,*

Oncology Research, Vol.32, No.1, pp. 163-174, 2024, DOI:10.32604/or.2023.030975

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of death worldwide. Current therapies are effective for HCC patients with early disease, but many patients suffer recurrence after surgery and have a poor response to chemotherapy. Therefore, new therapeutic targets are needed. We analyzed gene expression profiles between HCC tissues and normal adjacent tissues from public databases and found that the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism was significantly different. The analysis showed that AKR1C3 was upregulated in tumors, and high AKR1C3 expression was associated with a poorer prognosis in HCC patients. In vitro, assays demonstrated that the knockdown of AKR1C3… More >

XUEGANG YANG^1,#, XIANHONG XIANG^2,3,#, GUOHUI XU¹, SHI ZHOU³, TIANZHI AN^3,4,*, ZHI HUANG^3,4,*

Oncology Research, Vol.32, No.1, pp. 213-226, 2024, DOI:10.32604/or.2023.030768

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a common malignancy worldwide, still lacks effective clinical treatment. The study aimed to investigate the oncogenes that affect the progression of HCC and their possible mechanisms. In our study, we initially confirmed a higher level of PRDX2 in the bile of HCC patients compared to those with choledocholithiasis by 2-DE, LC-MS, and ELISA. Subsequently, we demonstrated the high expression of peroxiredoxin 2 (PRDX2) in HCC based on the TCGA database and clinical sample analysis. Furthermore, PRDX2 overexpression enhanced the viability of HCC cells. And PRDX2 silencing induced senescence of HCC cells. In vivo, knockdown of PRDX2 significantly… More >

ARCHITTAPON NOKKEAW^1,2,3,#, PANNATHON THAMJAMRASSRI^1,2,3,#, NAPHAT CHANTARAVISOOT^1,4, PISIT TANGKIJVANICH^1,2,*, CHAIYABOOT ARIYACHET^1,2,*

Oncology Research, Vol.31, No.6, pp. 989-1005, 2023, DOI:10.32604/or.2023.030395

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide; nevertheless, current therapeutic options are limited or ineffective for many patients. Therefore, elucidation of molecular mechanisms in HCC biology could yield important insights for the intervention of novel therapies. Recently, various studies have reported dysregulation of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the initiation and progression of HCC, including H19; however, the biological function of H19 in HCC remains unclear. Here, we show that knockdown of H19 disrupted HCC cell growth, impaired the G1-to-S phase transition, and promoted apoptosis, while overexpression of H19 yielded the opposite results. Screening for expression… More > Graphic Abstract

TIANYING CAI^1,2, JUNJIE BAI¹, PENG TAN³, ZHIWEI HUANG¹, CHEN LIU¹, ZIMING WU¹, YONGLANG CHENG¹, TONGXI LI¹, YIFAN CHEN¹, JIAN RUAN⁴, LIN GAO⁵, YICHAO DU^3,*, WENGUANG FU^1,3,*

Oncology Research, Vol.31, No.5, pp. 805-817, 2023, DOI:10.32604/or.2023.029549

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy that is driven by multiple genes and pathways. The aim of this study was to investigate the role and specific mechanism of the actin-interacting protein zyxin (ZYX) in HCC. We found that the expression of ZYX was significantly higher in HCC tissues compared to that in normal liver tissues. In addition, overexpression of ZYX in hepatoma cell lines (PLC/PRF/5, HCCLM3) enhanced their proliferation, migration and invasion, whereas ZYX knockdown had the opposite effects (SK HEP-1, Huh-7). Furthermore, the change in the expression levels of ZYX also altered that of proteins related to cell… More >

XINRUI SHI¹, XIA GAO¹, WENCONG LIU², XUEJIAO TANG¹, JIAYI LIU¹, DONGCHEN PAN¹, XUEQING DUAN¹, YUQING JIN¹, WEIYAN REN¹, LEI YANG^1,*, WENXUAN LIU^1,*

Oncology Research, Vol.31, No.4, pp. 569-590, 2023, DOI:10.32604/or.2023.028964

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common fatal cancer worldwide, patients with HCC have a high mortality rate and poor prognosis. PANoptosis is a novel discovery of programmed cell death associated with cancer development. However, the role of PANoptosis in HCC remains obscure. In this study, we enrolled 274 PANoptosisrelated genes (PANRGs) and screened 8 genes to set up a prognostic model. A previous scoring system calculated PANscore was utilized to quantify the individual risk level of each HCC patient, and the reliability of the prognostic model has been validated in an external cohort. Nomogram constructed with PANscore and clinical… More >

YUE CAO, LIN HU, YISHU TANG^*

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.7, pp. 1537-1548, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.027205

Abstract Backgrounds: Both hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) and microRNA-221 (miR-221) have been implicated in the development of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The present study demonstrates that HBx promotes HCC cell proliferation via the C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 12-C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCL12-CXCR4) axis. We predict that HBx/miR-221-mediated CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling induces NKT cells to promote HBV-related HCC. Methods: After miR-221 mimic, miR-221 mimic negative control, miR-221 inhibitor, miR-221 inhibitor negative control were transfected into cells, the expression of CXCL12 and miR-221 was detected by qPCR and western blot. Then we constructed a stable HBV-HCC cell line.… More >

BOWEN PENG¹, YUN GE¹, GANG YIN^2,3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.7, pp. 1519-1535, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.027026

Abstract Background: Tanshinone IIA, one of the main ingredients of Danshen, is used to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, potential targets of the molecule in the therapy of HCC are unknown. Methods: In this study, we collected the tanshinone IIA targets from public databases for investigation. We screened differentially expressed genes (DEGs) across HCC and normal tissues using mRNA expression profiles from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Univariate Cox regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression models were used to identify and construct the prognostic gene signature. Results: Finally, we discovered common genes across tanshinone IIA… More >

LI YANG^1,2, KUN DENG³, ZHIQIANG MOU^1,2, PINGFU XIONG^1,2, JIAN WEN^1,2, JING LI^1,2,*

Oncology Research, Vol.30, No.5, pp. 243-258, 2022, DOI: 10.32604/or.2022.027958

Abstract Background: Considering the great heterogeneity of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), more accurate prognostic models are urgently needed. This paper combined the advantages of genomics and pathomics to construct a prognostic model. Methods: First, we collected data from hepatocellular carcinoma patients with complete mRNA expression profiles and clinical annotations from the TCGA database. Then, based on immune-related genes, we used random forest plots to screen prognosis-related genes and build prognostic models. Bioinformatics was used to identify biological pathways, evaluate the tumor microenvironment, and perform drug susceptibility testing. Finally, we divided the patients into different subgroups according to the gene model algorithm. Pathological… More >

YONGKANG SHI, JUN MA, KE CHEN, BIN CHEN^*

Oncology Research, Vol.30, No.4, pp. 201-210, 2022, DOI:10.32604/or.2022.027584

Abstract 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent for various cancers. However, the drug resistance developed by tumor cells hinders the therapeutic effect. Konjac glucomannan (KGM) is indicated to sensitize 5-FU-resistant hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells to 5-FU. In our study, we found that KGM or 5-FU treatment alone did not affect the malignant cell behaviors and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress of 5-FU-resistant HCC cells or HepG2/5-FU and Bel-7402/5-FU cells, while cotreatment with KGM and 5-FU significantly facilitated HCC cell apoptosis and ER stress and suppressed cell proliferation potential and migration abilities. Moreover, we explored the underlying mechanism by which KGM… More >

XIAOYIN LI^1,#, QIAN WANG^2,#, HONGFENG LIANG^3,#, SHISHENG CHEN^4,#, HAIWEN CHEN^1,#, YAOYONG LU^1,*, CHANGFU YANG^1,*

Oncology Research, Vol.30, No.2, pp. 77-87, 2022, DOI:10.32604/or.2022.026511

Abstract In this study, we investigated the functional role of eukaryotic initiation factor 5B (EIF5B) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the underlying mechanisms. Bioinformatics analysis demonstrated that the EIF5B transcript and protein levels as well as the EIF5Bcopy number were significantly higher in the HCC tissues compared with the non-cancerous liver tissues. Down-regulation of EIF5B significantly decreased proliferation and invasiveness of the HCC cells. Furthermore, EIF5B knockdown suppressed epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the cancer stem cell (CSC) phenotype. Down-regulation of EIF5B also increased the sensitivity of HCC cells to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). In the HCC cells, activation of the NF-kappa B signaling… More >