Glypican-3: A Novel and Promising Target for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Xiufeng Zheng; Xun Liu; Yanna Lei; Gang Wang; Ming Liu

doi:10.3389/fonc.2022.824208

Glypican-3: A Novel and Promising Target for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Front Oncol. 2022 Feb 16:12:824208. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.824208. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xiufeng Zheng¹, Xun Liu², Yanna Lei¹, Gang Wang², Ming Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Abdominal Oncology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
² National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a membrane-associated proteoglycan that is specifically up-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) although rarely or not expressed in normal liver tissues, making it a perfect diagnostic and treatment target for HCC. Several GPC3-based clinical trials are ongoing and recently several innovative GPC3-targeted therapeutic methods have emerged with exciting results, including GPC3 vaccine, anti-GPC3 immunotoxin, combined therapy with immune checkpoint blockades (ICBs), and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T or NK cells. Here, we review the value of GPC3 in the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC, together with its signaling pathways, with a specific focus on GPC3-targeted treatments of HCC and some prospects for the future GPC3-based therapeutic strategies in HCC.

Keywords: cancer immunotherapy; chimeric antigen receptor; glypican-3 (GPC3); hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); immune checkpoint blockade.

Publication types

Review