A recent study led by Latifa Bakiri and Erwin Wagner from MedUni Vienna’s Clinical Institute for Laboratory Medicine has revealed a critical molecular signaling pathway involved in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a malignant liver cancer. This discovery highlights a potential new target for therapeutic treatments of HCC, which is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The study’s findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide valuable insights into the mechanisms of liver cancer progression.
The international research team, primarily based at MedUni Vienna, explored the role of specific transcription factors, c-Fos and c-Jun, in the development of HCC. Through a novel mouse model, the team found that the interaction between c-Jun and Fra-2 proteins initiates the cascade leading to tumor formation. Remarkably, the researchers were able to halt tumor growth by inhibiting the protein combination of c-Jun and Fra-2. Additionally, blocking a specific gene called c-Myc stopped tumor growth, demonstrating the promise of this molecular pathway for future HCC research and therapeutic development.
You can read the paper here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2404188121