Lipid Metabolism Reprogramming and Chinese Medicine Intervention in Hepatocellular Carcinoma： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Hepatocellular carcinoma （HCC） is considered to be one of the most aggressive tumors. It often occurs in patients with chronic liver disease and liver cirrhosis. Although research achievements have been attained in the current treatment methods， the opportunity of radical hepatectomy or transcatheter arterial chemoembolization has been lost due to the unobvious progression and no obvious symptoms until the late stage， which results in the poor prognosis. Tumor cells need more energy than normal cells. They maintain their growth， proliferation， and metastasis through metabolic reprogramming. Therefore， metabolic reprogramming is one of the signs of tumorigenesis. Glucose metabolism， lipid metabolism， amino acid metabolism， and nucleotide metabolism are several common cellular metabolism modes. Because the liver is the main organ of lipid metabolism， the occurrence and development of HCC is often accompanied by abnormal lipid metabolism. A variety of enzymes， proteins， genes， signaling pathways， and metabolites are involved in the lipid metabolism reprogramming of HCC. Their abnormal expression can promote lipid synthesis and lipid droplet accumulation through a variety of mechanisms， and further affect the proliferation， migration， invasion， autophagy， apoptosis， and angiogenesis of HCC cells. In recent years， traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has demonstrated great potential in the treatment of tumors， which has attracted wide attention of scholars. The effective components in Chinese herbal medicines and Chinese medicine compound prescriptions can inhibit the de novo synthesis of lipids， lower the level of lipid accumulation， and then inhibit the occurrence and development of HCC by regulating the lipid metabolism-related enzymes， proteins， and signaling pathways. This review summarizes the mechanism of the factors regulating lipid metabolism in HCC and the research progress in the TCM inhibition of HCC by regulating lipid metabolism reprogramming， and makes an outlook on the application prospect of lipid metabolism as a new target of TCM in the treatment of HCC， aiming to provide reference for the clinical treatment of HCC.