School of Life Sciences, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan 44919, Korea.
Department of Animal Science, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea.
Molecules. 2020 Mar 30;25(7):1580. doi: 10.3390/molecules25071580.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for approximately 90% of all cases of primary liver cancer; it is the third most frequent cause of cancer-related death worldwide. In early-stage disease, surgical resection and liver transplantation are considered curative treatments. However, the majority of HCC patients present with advanced-stage disease that is treated using palliative systemic therapy. Since HCC is heterogeneous owing to its multiple etiologies, various risk factors, and inherent resistance to chemotherapy, the development of an effective systemic treatment strategy for HCC remains a considerable challenge. Autophagy is a lysosome-dependent catabolic degradation pathway that is essential for maintaining cellular energy homeostasis. Autophagy dysfunction is closely linked with the pathogenesis of various cancers; therefore, the discovery of small molecules that can modulate autophagy has attracted considerable interest in the development of a systemic treatment strategy for advanced HCC. Here, we reviewed the roles of autophagy in HCC and the recent advances regarding small molecules that target autophagy regulatory mechanisms.
肝细胞癌 (HCC) 约占所有原发性肝癌的 90%；它是全球癌症相关死亡的第三大常见原因。在疾病早期，手术切除和肝移植被认为是可治愈的治疗方法。然而，大多数 HCC 患者患有晚期疾病，采用姑息性全身治疗。由于 HCC 具有多种病因、多种危险因素和对化疗的固有耐药性，因此开发有效的 HCC 全身治疗策略仍然是一个相当大的挑战。自噬是一种溶酶体依赖性的分解代谢降解途径，对维持细胞能量稳态至关重要。自噬功能障碍与各种癌症的发病机制密切相关；因此，发现能够调节自噬的小分子在开发晚期 HCC 的全身治疗策略方面引起了极大的兴趣。在这里，我们综述了自噬在 HCC 中的作用以及关于靶向自噬调节机制的小分子的最新进展。
