Prioritizing Popular Proteins in Liver Cancer: Remodelling One-Carbon Metabolism

Primary liver cancer
(HCC) is recognized as the fifth most common
neoplasm and the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Most
risk factors are known, and the molecular pathogenesis has been widely
studied in the past decade; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms
remain to be unveiled, as they will facilitate the definition of novel
biomarkers and clinical targets for more effective patient management.
We utilize the B/D-HPP popular protein strategy. We report a list
of popular proteins that have been highly cocited with the expression “liver
cancer”. Several enzymes highlight the known metabolic remodeling
of liver cancer cells, four of which participate in one-carbon metabolism.
This pathway is central to the maintenance of differentiated hepatocytes,
as it is considered the connection between intermediate metabolism
and epigenetic regulation. We designed a targeted selective reaction
monitoring (SRM) method to follow up one-carbon metabolism adaptation
in mouse HCC and in regenerating liver following exposure to CCl4. This method allows systematic monitoring of one-carbon metabolism
and could prove useful in the follow-up of HCC and of chronically
liver-diseased patients (cirrhosis) at risk of HCC. The SRM data are
available via ProteomeXchange in PASSEL (PASS01060)