Targeting Nerve Growth Factor May Cure Liver Cancer

Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been shown to be an important peptide factor for the growth and differentiation of neuronal cells. Researchers have now also found that this factor is positively linked to liver cancer, the number two killer among all cancers worldwide.

This research, published in the October 7, 2007, issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology, was collaboration among scientists from the National Research Council of Italy (CNR; Rome, Italy), Marino Hospital (Rome, Italy), Regina Elena Cancer Institute (Rome, Italy), and the University of Rome (Italy). The collaboration was led by Dr. Annalucia Serafino, a well-known investigator in cancer research, hepatitis C virus research, and a senior researcher in the CNR.

Utilizing many immunohistology analyses, the scientists showed that NGF and its receptor trkANGF were expressed in the liver of the patients suffering with liver cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), whereas these two molecules are not detected in the liver of healthy people. For a growth factor to affect a cell, there should be its specific receptor expressed on the surface of the target cell. Because both NGF and its specific receptor are abnormally expressed in the liver of patients, NGF seems to be expressed by liver cells to affect themselves (so-called autocrine) or to affect neighboring cells (so-called paracrine) in patients with liver cirrhosis and/or HCC.

These significant findings indicate that NGF plays a significant role in the development of liver cirrhosis and its progression towards HCC. Based on this finding, targeting the NGF or its specific receptor, trkANGF, in the diseased liver may suppress or prevent the development of liver cirrhosis and HCC. In the near future, bioengineers may be able to devise a drug directed to the liver to inactivate NGF or its receptor.

This discovery also opens up the possibility to use NGF in the early diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and HCC because of the high and specific expression of this growth factor in the liver progressing into liver cirrhosis and/or HCC.


Related Links:
National Research Council of Italy
University of Rome