Growth Differentiation Factor 1-Induced Tumour Plasticity Provides A Therapeutic Window for Immunotherapy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive disease with poor prognosis. Here the authors show that GDF1, a member of the TGF-β superfamily, is highly expressed in high-grade poorly differentiated HCC and is associated with tumor plasticity, and that GDF1-induced re-expression of cancer testis antigens could render tumors sensitive to immune checkpoint inhibition. RNA sequencing was performed in PLC-8024-CTR and PLC-8024-GDF1 cells at Shanghai Shenggong Biotech Co., Ltd. RNA samples were analyzed by RNA sequencing based on the manufacturer’s protocols. Briefly, Illumina HiSeq platform was used to sequence the RNA samples for the subsequent generation of raw data. R package was utilized to select genes with significantly differential expression. In order to obtain the significant differential genes, the screening conditions were set as follows: q-value <0.05 and difference multiple log2FoldChange >1. GSEA enrichment analysis were used for functional pathway analysis.