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REVIEW article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Intestinal Microbiome
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1467197
This article is part of the Research Topic Microbiome-based metabolomics revolution in health and microbial metabolites redefinition View all 9 articles

Microbiome Interplays in the Gut-Liver Axis: Implications for Liver Cancer Pathogenesis and Therapeutic Insights

Provisionally accepted
Xuran Wang Xuran Wang 1Runqiu Jiang Runqiu Jiang 2*Bin Zhang Bin Zhang 3*
  • 1 School of Medicine, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
  • 3 Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

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

    Globally, primary liver cancer (PLC) ranks the most fatal malignancy. Most of the patients are in advanced stage of PLC at the very time they are diagnosed with it, accounting much for its poor prognosis. With the advancement of modern medical research and care system, the main etiology of PLC more and more swithes from hepatitis viruses such as HAV, HBV, HCV, HEV to other causes like metabolism-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). As a result, it is of great necessity to find out new ways for treatment and early diagnosis to cope with this problem. Nowadays, as the mechanism of the Gut-Liver Axis in the formation of MAFLD, MASH and PLC has been gradually elucidated. The association between gut microbiome and the formation of PLC is of great significance to take an insight into. In this review, we present the concept of Gut-Liver Axis and its function in the mutual influence between gut microbiota and PLC from several aspects in which we will foucs on the structure of gut barrier and the functional influences the gut microbiota have on the immune response and metabolic changes on human liver. Furthermore, we conclude the potential association of gut microbiota constitution with the PLC. Eventually, we hope this review can offer novel instructions for early diagnosis and treatment for liver cancer.

    Keywords: HCC, Gut-liver axis, gut microbiome, Microbial Metabolites, liver cancer

    Received: 19 Jul 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Jiang 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:
    Runqiu Jiang, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230032, Anhui Province, China
    Bin Zhang, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, 210008, Jiangsu Province, 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.