Our findings provide functional and mechanistic insights into the critical role of ASPP2 in the regulation of the mevalonate pathway and the importance of this pathway in tumor initiation and tumor growth, which may provide a new therapeutic opportunity for HCC.
In the present study, ASPP2 overexpression failed to induce apoptotic cell death in the HCC Huh7.5 cell line, but promoted autophagy development by inhibiting AKT/mTOR pathway.
Our findings present functional and mechanistic insight into the critical role of ASPP2 in the inhibition of HCC stemness and drug resistance and may provide a new strategy for therapeutic combinations to treat HCC.
Our results, which define a mechanism whereby ASPP2 overexpression induces autophagic apoptosis, open a new avenue for promoting autophagy in treatments to cure hepatocellular carcinoma.