Images and AFP are now the best tests for HCC. However clinical practice over the past few years has demonstrated that the prevalence of HCC with negative AFP has increased, that the rate of early misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis is high, that the diagnosis is usually in the middle and late stages and the prognosis bad. It's of utmost importance, therefore, to find a marker for early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of HCC.
All proteins are relevant to cell biology and oncology and acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 as a protein could also contribute to liver cancer formation and cure. It could control cell growth, death, spread, or pharmacokinetics during treatment. Acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 (RPLP2) is a ribosomal protein on the 60 S large subunit of the ribosome, which mainly makes proteins. RPLP2 is highly expressed in tumor tissues including lung adenocarcinoma, breast cancer, and endometrial cancer, the most recent study showed.
RPLP2, an acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein, is a nuclear phosphoprotein present in cells' ribosomes. While its physiology in cells may differ depending on the research design and conditions, acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 is likely to have these cell-physiological effects:
Acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 is a nuclear phosphoprotein, which controls the production of protein in cells. Maybe it has a function on the ribosome, which converts mRNA into protein.
Acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 might also function to manage cell growth and proliferation. Its involvement in protein synthesis can also influence cell growth and division.
The nuclear phosphoproteins could also function in apoptosis (programmed cell death). The apoptotic pathway could be linked to acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2.
It's the most common type of liver cancer, carried on by a cell that lives in the liver called HCC. HCC is the most common form of liver cancer on Earth — especially in East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Chronic viral liver disease (hepatitis B or C virus on the liver), cirrhosis, chronic alcoholism, liver infection, genetic diseases etc. ), which is the most frequent risk factor for HCC. The earliest HCC can be experienced with no symptoms but advanced HCC can occur as abdominal pain, jaundice, weakness, weight loss etc. Diagnosed mostly by imaging scans (ultrasound, CT scan, MRI) and blood analysis (liver function, tumour markers). HCC is treated by surgical removal, liver transplantation, ablation, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, chemotherapy, etc. Treatment programme will be as per tumor size, position, stage and condition. HCC's outcome depends a lot on a few factors such as the early stage of the tumour, treatment effectiveness and patient's overall wellbeing. You can do so much to stave off hepatocellular carcinoma: you need to get the hepatitis B vaccine, don not drink a lot, be a good size, monitor your liver.
RPLP2 (acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2) expression in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma is a promising field because the protein's level in the tumour can be a sign of tumour evolution and therapy. RPLP2 expression can differ in HCC patients, there are studies. In particular, some experiments showed that RPLP2 levels might be higher in HCC tissues and lower in paracancerous tissues. This difference could indicate that RPLP2 causes liver cancer. Further studies are required, too, to explore more closely what exactly RPLP2 does and how it works in liver cancer to better ascertain how it causes, develops and treats liver cancer.
Fig. 1 Chemical staining of RPLP2 in different immunohistochemistry tissues (Yang Q., et al. 2023).
It may have to do with the biology of tumors, and that is how acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 is linked to HCC. However, scientists are still working out exactly how and what acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 does in HCC. Perhaps they could test whether the expression of acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 in HCC patients predicts tumor growth, development, and outcome. Researchers could study acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2's biological roles in hepatocytes, including its roles in tumor processes (proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis, and invasion). Research can include what could be signaling mechanisms and regulatory networks of acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 in HCC's formation and progression. The discovery of whether acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P2 could act as a target or biomarker for HCC treatment would be something that researchers might also examine based on the study's findings.
Stage-related change in HCC is also a major predictor of patient survival. Early-stage patients can be targeted and live longer. The 5-year survival rate with surgery at Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A is over 93 percent if HCC is detected at Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A. But 60–80% of HCC patients are diagnosed too late and do not have a chance for surgery. So new diagnostic signs are essential to staging and prognosis. Apart from this function, ribosomal protein RP has extra-ribosomal functions of cell DNA repair, apoptosis, proliferation, growth arrest, and resistance to chemotherapy. This pattern of expression in the tumor is very tumor-specific, so it could be a biomarker for several cancers. It is significant because the downregulation of RPLP2 is a potent cancer therapeutic - though no one understands how RPLP2 works on HCC.
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