Wu Y, Xie BB, Zhang BL, Zhuang QX, Liu SW, Pan HM. Apatinib regulates the glycolysis of vascular endothelial cells through PI3K/AKT/PFKFB3 pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2025; 31(11): 102848 [PMID: 40124275 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i11.102848]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hong-Ming Pan, Division of Cancer Medicine, Sir Run Run Shaw Medical Center, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, No. 3 East Qinchun Road, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China. panhongming@zju.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2025; 31(11): 102848 Published online Mar 21, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i11.102848
Apatinib regulates the glycolysis of vascular endothelial cells through PI3K/AKT/PFKFB3 pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma
Yi Wu, Bin-Bin Xie, Bing-Liang Zhang, Qing-Xin Zhuang, Shi-Wei Liu, Hong-Ming Pan
Yi Wu, Bin-Bin Xie, Hong-Ming Pan, Division of Cancer Medicine, Sir Run Run Shaw Medical Center, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China
Bing-Liang Zhang, Qing-Xin Zhuang, Shi-Wei Liu, Section of Oncology, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region General Hospital, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750000, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Xie BB and Pan HM designed the research study; Wu Y, Zhang BL, Zhuang QX, and Liu SW performed the research.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82100542 and No. 81802842.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University Institutional Review Board, No. 20201113-30.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal experiments were performed in accordance with the protocols approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Zhejiang University. No. SRRSH202302100.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: All data generated or analyzed in this study are included in the published article. The dataset used or analyzed in this study can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong-Ming Pan, Division of Cancer Medicine, Sir Run Run Shaw Medical Center, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, No. 3 East Qinchun Road, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China. panhongming@zju.edu.cn
Received: November 11, 2024 Revised: January 17, 2025 Accepted: February 11, 2025 Published online: March 21, 2025 Processing time: 130 Days and 3.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is characterized by its rich vascularization and highly active metabolic processes. As a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2-targeting agent, apatinib serves as a primary therapeutic option for HCC patients. Nevertheless, the impact of apatinib on the metabolic activities of vascular endothelial cells remains poorly understood. The study revealed that apatinib modulates glycolysis in HCC-associated vascular endothelial cells through the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT/6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase 3 signaling cascade. These findings provide insights into the molecular mechanism of apatinib’s action on endothelial cells and uncover a potential therapeutic target for HCC patients with high 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase 3 expression.
