Gao Yan, Zhou Wei, Gao Yuehong, Wang Shunxi, Xu Zhiling, Xiang Xiao, Yang Li
National Innovation and Attracting Talents "111" base, Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Bioengineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Chongqing University Cancer Hospital, Chongqing, China.
Int J Biol Sci. 2025 Jul 24;21(11):4798-4815. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.112943. eCollection 2025.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly aggressive malignancy with a dismal prognosis that is largely attributed to the capacity of liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) to self-renew in response to conventional therapies. Therefore, it is crucial to develop new therapeutic strategies that target LCSCs to improve the clinical outcomes of patients with HCC. We surveyed and analyzed publicly available single-cell TCGA (the cancer genome atlas), single-cell (scRNA-seq) and spatial RNA-sequencing databases from HCC patient specimens for genes uniquely expressed in LCSCs. We generated and characterized LCSCs from patient-derived HCC cell lines and used them as tools to uncover the previously unknown molecular mechanisms associated with the stemness of LCSCs. We selectively screened a bank of natural compounds to identify drugs that can specifically target LCSCs for HCC treatment and documented their effects both and . TCGA analyses showed that SETD1B expression was aberrantly elevated in HCC, correlating with poor prognosis and a distinct molecular signature of stemness. We demonstrated that SETD1B, driven by MAZ, enhances stem characteristics by promoting anchorage-independence, cellular adhesion, tumor sphere formation, and growth via the surface glycoprotein CD24. We identified triptolide (Trip), which serves as a potent suppressor of LCSC stemness by targeting SETD1B for degradation, thereby dramatically attenuating HCC progression and . These findings establish the MAZ/SETD1B/CD24 signaling cascade as a critical regulatory mechanism of LCSC stemness and highlight Trip as a potential therapeutic agent for HCC.
肝细胞癌(HCC)是一种侵袭性很强的恶性肿瘤,预后很差,这在很大程度上归因于肝癌干细胞(LCSCs)在传统治疗后具有自我更新的能力。因此,开发针对LCSCs的新治疗策略以改善HCC患者的临床结局至关重要。我们调查并分析了来自HCC患者标本的公开可用的单细胞TCGA(癌症基因组图谱)、单细胞(scRNA-seq)和空间RNA测序数据库,以寻找在LCSCs中独特表达的基因。我们从患者来源的HCC细胞系中生成并鉴定了LCSCs,并将其用作工具来揭示与LCSCs干性相关的先前未知的分子机制。我们选择性地筛选了一组天然化合物,以鉴定可特异性靶向LCSCs用于HCC治疗的药物,并记录了它们在体内和体外的作用。TCGA分析表明,SETD1B在HCC中的表达异常升高,与预后不良和一种独特的干性分子特征相关。我们证明,由MAZ驱动的SETD1B通过促进非锚定依赖性、细胞粘附、肿瘤球形成以及通过表面糖蛋白CD24促进生长来增强干细胞特征。我们鉴定出雷公藤内酯醇(Trip),它通过靶向SETD1B进行降解,作为LCSC干性的有效抑制剂,从而显著减弱HCC进展。这些发现确立了MAZ/SETD1B/CD24信号级联作为LCSC干性的关键调节机制,并突出了Trip作为HCC潜在治疗药物的作用。
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