Here, we found that the expression of CD24 was high in HCC tissues compared with adjacent normal liver tissues, and positively correlated with the poor prognosis and α-SMA expression in CAFs.
In this system, the NKG2D ligand MHC class I-related chain A (MICA) was fused with BsAb, which targeted a cluster of differentiation 24 (CD24), a tumor-initiating cell marker that is over-expressed on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
The immunohistochemical expression of CD24 is associated with worse patient outcomes in small cell lung cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer, and colon cancer.
Furthermore, in CD24(+) HCC-bearing nude mice, rG7S-MICA specifically targeted to the tumor tissue, where it effectively recruited NK cells and induced the release of cytokines, and showed superior anti-tumor activity.
We demonstrated that the EMT process of HCC cell was effectively induced by CD24; also, the tumor immune microenvironment was changed by facilitating Notch-related EMT in vivo.
The near-infrared fluorescence imaging revealed that G7mAb and G7S aggregate in CD24+Huh7 hepatocellular carcinoma xenograft tissuevia specific binding to CD24 in vivo.
Moreover, combined NDRG2 downregulation and CD24 upregulation (NDRG2-low/CD24-high) more frequently occurred in HCC tissues with high serum AFP (P=0.03), advanced tumor stage (P=0.001) and high tumor grade (P=0.02).
The expression pattern of NDRG2 and CD24 in HCC tissues and the relationship between NDRG2 and HCC clinical features was analyzed by immunohistochemical and western blotting analysis.
The MXR7 mRNA expression correlated closely with elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels (88 versus 55%; P = 0.0001) and with expression of AFP mRNA (87 versus 55%; P = 0.005) and CD24 mRNA in HCC (80 versus 50%; P < 0.04), high tumor grade (76 versus 56%; P = 0.05), and tumor invasion (76 versus 55%; P < 0.05), but not with patient outcome.
Thus, the CD24 gene expression appears to be a common event in HCC and may serve as an early but not prognostic biomarker for malignant transformation of hepatocytes.