Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is considered as a diagnostic and prognostic tumorous marker for HCC, and up to 70% of HCC patients showed elevated serum levels of AFP. In the past two decades, evidences have shown that AFP not only is a tumorous biomarker for diagnosing HCC, but also plays a very complicated role in regulating proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy and inhibiting the immune response of cells. Because AFP is significantly elevated during hepatocarcinogenesis, the role of AFP in the development of HCC is a scientific problem worthy of further exploration. In this review, we reviewed the effects of AFP on hepatocyte malignant transformation and the underlying mechanisms involved in the progression of HCC.
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Abbreviations
- HCC:
-
Hepatocellular carcinoma
- AFP:
-
Alpha-fetoprotein
- HBV:
-
Hepatitis B virus
- HBx:
-
HBV- X protein
- TRAIL:
-
Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand
- ATRA:
-
All-trans retinoic acid
- PTEN:
-
Phosphate and tension homology deleted on chromosome ten
- DCs:
-
Dendritic cells
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Hainan Medical College Council of Medical Research for their help and Kun Liu prepared the figure.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81960519, 81660463, 81560450, 31560243); The Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (Nos. 2019CXTD406, 2019CR204 and 20168263); Hainan Provincial Association for Science and Technology Program of Youth Science Talent and Academic Innovation (No. QCXM 201922).
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YZ prepared the manuscript, ZM and LM designed the concepts and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Zheng, Y., Zhu, M. & Li, M. Effects of alpha-fetoprotein on the occurrence and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 146, 2439–2446 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-020-03331-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-020-03331-6