Sun Yat-sen University publishes new results of cancer research

  Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, also called malignant liver cancer) is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of liver cancer are secondary to viral hepatitis (hepatitis B or C) or cirrhosis (alcohol dependence is the most common cause of cirrhosis) . In China, hepatocellular carcinoma ranks second in malignancy, and the five-year overall survival rate is less than 5%. Although many staging methods for hepatocellular carcinoma have been proposed, due to the molecular diversity of HCC, it is still difficult to determine the prognosis of patients in clinical practice (enlarged reading: recommended by Chinese scholars). Results Professor He Chuan's research results: Cancer diagnosis starts from the blood. ..Methyldopa (Meprin) belongs to the endopeptidase of the astaxanthin protease family and is expressed in the small intestine. MEP1A is the alpha subunit of protease, and its protein molecular weight is 85kD. It is located on human chromosome 6p and encodes and expresses the metalloprotease Meplin A, which is secreted and expressed in small intestinal epithelial cells. In recent years, research reports have shown that MEP1A is a potential promoter gene related to liver cancer, is closely related to the formation of liver cancer, and may play an important role in the development of liver cancer. I know.

  In this new article, researchers studied the relationship between MEP1A and the clinical outcome of HCC patients, and studied the role of MEP1A in HCC. Through real-time quantitative PCR, the researchers found that the level of MEC1A mRNA in HCC tumor tissue was significantly higher than that in nearby non-tumor and non-malignant liver diseases. Immunohistochemical analysis of tissue samples from two independent groups of 394 HCC patients showed that the positive expression of MEP1A in tumor cells is an independent and important risk factor affecting survival after radical resection. Yes, the Barcelona clinical liver cancer staging (BCLC) 0-A subgroup was analyzed. Patients with positive MEP1A expression in tumor cells are more surgically operable than patients with negative MEP1A expression in tumor cells. I further confirmed the poor prognosis. In vivo and in vitro analysis showed that MEP1A promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells. Further analysis showed that MEP1A plays an important role in regulating the cytoskeletal events of HCC cells and inducing epithelial-mesenchymal translocation (EMT).

  New research results show that MEP1A can be used as a new predictor of HCC prognosis, and MEC1A plays an important role in the occurrence and development of HCC.