A fusion protein Fn14·TRAIL, that combines soluble TRAIL molecule with a specific TWEAK receptor Fn14, is a better apoptosis-inducer for hepatocellular carcinomas than soluble TRAIL.
Thus, the results of the current study suggest that TNFRSF12A may be a candidate therapeutic target for cancer including HCC, and additional genes that exhibited significantly different expression from normal adjacent tissues require further study.
Fn14 overexpression HCC correlated with poor surgical outcome, and this molecule may be a candidate biomarker for prognosis as well as a target for therapy.
RAR is able to interact with cytoplasmic AFP and binds to the element of the regulatory region of the Fn14 gene in the neoplastic tissue of HCC patients.
Furthermore, the murine Fn14 gene is rapidly induced during liver regeneration in vivo and is expressed at high levels in the hepatocellular carcinoma nodules that develop in the c-myc/transforming growth factor-alpha-driven and the hepatitis B virus X protein-driven transgenic mouse models of hepatocarcinogenesis.