A research team led by Professor Zhang Yanmin from the School of Pharmacy at Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) recently made significant progress in understanding the mechanisms behind organelle remodeling and dedifferentiation in liver cancer. Their findings have been published in the prestigious international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The dedifferentiation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a critical hallmark of high tumor malignancy and poses a major challenge in clinical treatment. By integrating high-throughput CRISPR screening with multi-omics technologies, including proteomics and targeted metabolomics, the study deciphers the molecular mechanisms by which the hypoxic tumor microenvironment drives metabolic reprogramming in liver cancer cells.

This research not only reveals a novel mechanism through which the hypoxic microenvironment triggers liver cancer dedifferentiation, but also details the successful development of a new small-molecule inhibitor, opening a new avenue for redifferentiation therapy.