Hepatoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) stands as one of the most malignant tumors characterized by poor prognosis and high mortality rates. Emerging evidence underscores the crucial role of the B7 protein family in various cancers, including HCC. However, the involvement of the human endogenous retrovirus H long-terminal repeat-associated protein 2 (HHLA2, or B7-H5) in HCC remains unclear. Immunohistochemistry was employed to assess the differential expression of HHLA2 between HCC and normal liver tissues...

Employing an MS/MS-based molecular networking-guided strategy, three new eudesmane-type sesquiterpenes (1-3) and one undescribed pseudoguaianolide sesquiterpene (8), along with four known eudesmane-type sesquiterpene lactones (4-7) were extracted and purified from the herbs of Carpesium abrotanoides L. Structural elucidation encompassed comprehensive spectroscopic analysis, NMR calculations, DP4+ analysis, and ECD calculations. The cytotoxicity activity of all isolates was evaluated against two human hepatoma carcinoma cells (HepG2 and Hep3B) in vitro...

Adequate dietary intake of amino acids is imperative for normal animal growth. Our previous work using rat hepatocarcinoma Fao cells demonstrated that growth hormone (GH) resistance, coupled with a concurrent reduction in insulin-like growth factor 1 (Igf1) mRNA levels, may underlie the growth retardation associated with a low-protein diet (LPD). In this study, we investigated whether FGF21 contributes to liver GH resistance in Fao rat hepatoma cells under amino acid deprivation conditions. Mice subjected to an LPD exhibited growth retardation, compromised GH signaling in the liver, and decreased blood IGF-1 levels compared with those on a control diet...

A new pimarane-type diterpene, ent-8(14),15-pimaradiene-2β,19-diol (JXE-23), was isolated from the fern plant Aleuritopteris albofusca by our previous work; however, the biological activity of this diterpene remains unclear. In the present study, the anti-cancer potential of JXE-23 in various cancer cells was investigated. Among MCF-7 breast cancer cells, A549 lung cancer cells, and HepG2 liver cancer cells, JXE-23 displayed significant cytotoxicity to HepG2 cells with an IC50 value of 17.20 ± 1...

BACKGROUND: The protein annexin A6 (AnxA6) is involved in numerous membrane-related biological processes including cell migration and invasion by interacting with other proteins. The dysfunction of AnxA6, including protein expression abundance change and imbalance of post-translational modification, is tightly related to multiple cancers. Herein we focus on the biological function of AnxA6 SUMOylation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. METHODS: The modification sites of AnxA6 SUMOylation were identified by LC-MS/MS and amino acid site mutation...

Liver cancer stem cells were found to rely on glycolysis as the preferred metabolic program. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase 1 (PCK1), a gluconeogenic metabolic enzyme, is down-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma and is closely related to poor prognosis. The oncogenesis and progression of tumors are closely related to cancer stem cells. It is not completely clear whether the PCK1 deficiency increases the stemness of hepatoma cells and promotes the oncogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Herein, the results showed that PCK1 inhibited the self-renewal property of hepatoma cells, reduced the mRNA level of cancer stem cell markers, and inhibited tumorigenesis...

BACKGROUND: Immune escape remains a major challenge in the treatment of malignant tumors. Here, we studied the mechanisms underlying immune escape in the tumor microenvironment and identified a potential therapeutic target. METHODS: Pathological specimens from patients with liver cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, and liver metastasis of colon cancer were subjected to immunohistochemistry analysis to detect the expression of programmed death-1 (PD-1) in the tumor microenvironment (TME)...

BACKGROUND: Effective communication is crucial for broad acceptance and applicability of alternative methods in 3R biomedical research and preclinical testing. 3D bioprinting is used to construct intricate biological structures towards functional liver models, specifically engineered for deployment as alternative models in drug screening, toxicological investigations, and tissue engineering. Despite a growing number of reviews in this emerging field, a comprehensive study, systematically assessing practices and reporting quality for bioprinted liver models is missing...

OBJECT: Our objective was to estimate the 5-year cumulative risk of HCC in patients with HBC by utilizing an artificial neural network (ANN). METHODS: We conducted this study with 1589 patients hospitalized at Beijing Ditan Hospital of Capital Medical University and People's Liberation Army Fifth Medical Center. The training cohort consisted of 913 subjects from Beijing Ditan Hospital of Capital Medical University, while the validation cohort comprised 676 subjects from People's Liberation Army Fifth Medical Center...

Cancer is one of the most demanding domains for innovative, effective, safe, and affordable therapeutically active chemicals. The main aim of this study is to research new phytochemicals with anticancer activity. The current experiment identified and analyzed six compounds for anti-cancer potential supported by molecular simulation studies. The defatted methanolic extract underwent column chromatography, resulting in the isolation of six flavonoids. These include 3,5,7,4'-tetrahydroxy-flavanone ( 1 ), naringenin ( 2 ), 3,5,4'-trihydroxy-7-methoxy-flavanone ( 3 ), sakuranetin ( 4 ), spinacetin ( 5 ), and patuletin ( 6 )...

Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) is a bile acids receptor and plays a crucial role in regulating bile acids, lipids, and glucose metabolism. Previous research suggests that inhibiting FXR activation can be beneficial in reducing cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels, offering potential treatment options for metabolic syndrome with lipid disorders. Herein, we report p-acetylaminobenzene sulfonate derivatives as a novel scaffold of FXR antagonists by multistage screening. Among these derivatives, compound F44-A13 exhibited a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of 1...

An unparalleled copper(I)-catalyzed synthesis of 1,3,4-oxadiazoles from tertiary amines in one step has been described. The one-pot reactions involving (N-isocyanimine)triphenylphosphorane, tertiary amines, and carboxylic acids resulted in the formation of 1,3,4-oxadiazoles in moderate to good yields through a consecutive oxidative Ugi/aza-Wittig reaction, enabling the direct functionalization of sp3 C-H bonds adjacent to the nitrogen atom. This method offered several notable advantages, including ligands-free, exceptional productivity and a high functional group tolerance...

Liver diseases are classified as acute liver damage and chronic liver disease, with recurring liver damage causing liver fibrosis and progression to cirrhosis and hepatoma. Liver transplantation is the only effective treatment for end-stage liver diseases; therefore, novel therapies are required. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are endogenous nanocarriers involved in cell-to-cell communication that play important roles in immune regulation, tissue repair and regeneration. Native EVs can potentially be used for various liver diseases owing to their high biocompatibility, low immunogenicity and tissue permeability and engineered EVs with surface modification or cargo loading could further optimize therapeutic effects...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the deadliest malignant tumors and the development of effective therapeutics against HCC is urgently needed. A novel quinazoline derivative 04NB-03 (Qd04) has been proved to be highly effective against HCC without obvious toxic side-effects. However, the poor water solubility and low bioavailability in vivo severely limit its clinical application. In addition, Qd04 kills tumor cells by inducing an accumulation of endogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is highly impeded by the overexpression of glutathione (GSH) in tumor cells...

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) can cause acute and chronic hepatitis in humans. Whereas HEV genotypes 1-4 of species Paslahepevirus balayani are commonly found in humans, infections with ratHEV (species Rocahepevirus ratti) were previously considered to be restricted to rats. However, several cases of human ratHEV infections have been described recently. To investigate the zoonotic potential of this virus, a genomic clone was constructed here based on sequence data of ratHEV strain pt2, originally identified in a human patient with acute hepatitis from Hongkong...

Guaianolide dimers represent a unique class of natural products with anticancer activities, but their low content in plants has limited in-depth pharmacological studies. Lavandiolide I is a guaianolide dimer isolated from Artemisia species, and had been synthesized on a ten-gram scale in four steps with 60 % overall yield, which showed potent antihepatoma activity on the HepG2, Huh7, and SK-Hep-1 cell lines with IC50 values of 12.1, 18.4, and 17.6 µM, respectively. To explore more active dimers, 33 lavandiolide I derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their inhibitory activity on human hepatoma cell lines...

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) seems to play causative roles in gastric cancers. H. pylori has also been detected in established gastric cancers. How the presence of H. pylori modulates immune response to the cancer is unclear. The cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) cells, toward infected or malignant cells, is controlled by the repertoire of activating and inhibitory receptors expressed on their surface. Here, we studied H. pylori-induced changes in the expression of ligands, of activating and inhibitory receptors of NK cells, in the gastric adenocarcinoma AGS cells, and their impacts on NK cell responses...

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Tanacetum parthenium (L.) Schultz-Bip, commonly known as feverfew, has been traditionally used to treat fever, migraines, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer. Parthenolide (PTL), the main bioactive ingredient isolated from the shoots of feverfew, is a sesquiterpene lactone with anti-inflammatory and antitumor properties. Previous studies showed that PTL exerts anticancer activity in various cancers, including hepatoma, cholangiocarcinoma, acute myeloid leukemia, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer...

Docetaxel (DTX) is a semi-synthetic analogue of paclitaxel which has attracted extensive attention in the treatment of cancer. However, the current clinically used DTX formulations display low tumor targeting ability, leading to unsatisfactory therapeutic outcomes with adverse effects, which poses significant challenges to the clinical application. In this study, three galactosamine (Gal) and docetaxel conjugates with different linkers were synthesized, namely DTX-(suc-Gal)2 , DTX-(DTDPA-Gal)2 , and DTX-(DSeDPA-Gal)2 ...

Platelets have been reported to exert diverse actions besides hemostasis and thrombus formation in the body. However, whether platelets affect transporter activity remains to be determined. In this study, we examined the effects of platelets on the activity of amino acid transporter system A, which is known to be changed by various factors, and we clarified the mechanism by which platelets affect system A activity. Among system A subtypes, we found that sodium-coupled neutral amino acid transporter (SNAT) 4 played a central role in the transport activity of system A in HuH-7 human hepatoma cells...