Opinion Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 14, 2020; 26(18): 2126-2137
Published online May 14, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i18.2126
Annexin A2 promotion of hepatocellular carcinoma tumorigenesis via the immune microenvironment
Li-Wei Qiu, Yi-Fei Liu, Xiao-Qing Cao, Yan Wang, Xiao-Hong Cui, Xian Ye, Shuo-Wen Huang, Hong-Jun Xie, Hai-Jian Zhang
Li-Wei Qiu, Hai-Jian Zhang, Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Yi-Fei Liu, Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Xiao-Qing Cao, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University (Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute), Beijing 101149, China
Yan Wang, Emergency Department, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Xiao-Hong Cui, Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Electric Power Hospital, Shanghai 200050, China
Xian Ye, Shuo-Wen Huang, Hong-Jun Xie, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Qiu LW, Liu YF, and Cao XQ designed the research study, conducted the experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper; Wang Y, Cui XH, Xian Ye, Huang SW, and Xie HJ collected the data and reviewed the manuscript; Zhang HJ is the guarantor; Qiu LW, Liu YF, and Cao XQ contributed equally to this work.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81401988; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, No. 2019M661907; Jiangsu Postdoctoral Science Foundation, No. 2019K159 and No. 2019Z153; General Project of Jiangsu Provincial Health Committee, No. H2019101.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hai-Jian Zhang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Doctor, Postdoc, Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, 20 West Temple Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China. hjzhang@ntu.edu.cn
Received: December 31, 2019
Peer-review started: December 31, 2019
First decision: March 18, 2020
Revised: April 8, 2020
Accepted: April 21, 2020
Article in press: April 21, 2020
Published online: May 14, 2020
Processing time: 134 Days and 12.2 Hours
Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer with a dismal prognosis, especially when diagnosed at advanced stages. Annexin A2 (ANXA2), is found to promote cancer progression and therapeutic resistance. However, the underlining mechanisms of ANXA2 in immune escape of HCC remain poorly understood up to now. Herein, we summarized the molecular function of ANXA2 in HCC and its relationship with prognosis. Furthermore, we tentatively elucidated the underlying mechanism of ANXA2 immune escape of HCC by upregulating the proportion of regulatory T cells and the expression of several inhibitory molecules, and by downregulating the proportion of natural killer cells and dendritic cells and the expression of several inhibitory molecules or effector molecules. We expect a lot of in-depth studies to further reveal the underlying mechanism of ANXA2 in immune escape of HCC in the future.

Keywords: Annexin A2; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Immune microenvironment; Overall survival; Chemotherapy resistance; Checkpoint

Core tip: Annexin A2 (ANXA2) has been found to promote cancer progression and therapeutic resistance in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the mechanism by which annexin A2 facilitates the immune escape of hepatocellular carcinoma remains poorly understood. In this opinion review, we discuss in detail the latest findings on the role of annexin A2 in hepatocellular carcinoma immune escape.