Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Cancer Cell Biology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1454587
This article is part of the Research Topic 10 years of Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology: Past Discoveries, Current Challenges and Future Perspectives View all 6 articles

Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Provisionally accepted
Jianguo Xu Jianguo Xu 1wangwang Liu wangwang Liu 1yihan yao yihan yao 2Tuomas P J Knowles Tuomas P J Knowles 2Zhi-Gang Zhang Zhi-Gang Zhang 3*Yanli Zhang Yanli Zhang 1*
  • 1 Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China
  • 2 Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) drives the formation of membraneless intracellular compartments within both cytoplasm and nucleus. These compartments can form distinct physicochemical environments, and in particular display different concentrations of proteins, RNA, and macromolecules compared to the surrounding cytosol. Recent studies have highlighted the significant role of aberrant LLPS in cancer development and progression, impacting many core processes such as oncogenic signalling pathways, transcriptional dysregulation, and genome instability. In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), aberrant formation of biomolecular condensates has been observed in a number of preclinical models, highlighting their significance as an emerging factor in understanding cancer biology and its molecular underpinnings. In this review, we summarize emerging evidence and recent advances in understanding the role of LLPS in HCC, with a particular focus on the regulation and dysregulation of cytoplasmic and nuclear condensates in cancer cells. We finally discuss how an emerging understanding of phase separation processes in HCC opens up new potential treatment avenues.

    Keywords: Liquid-liquid phase separation, Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Cytoplasmic condensates, Nuclear condensates, droplets

    Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 06 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xu, Liu, yao, Knowles, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Zhi-Gang Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
    Yanli Zhang, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.