Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 14, 2025; 31(6): 99750
Published online Feb 14, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i6.99750
Reevaluating Calculus bovis: Modulating the liver cancer immune microenvironment via the Wnt/β-catenin pathway
Shi-Yue Wang, Kai-Juan Wang
Shi-Yue Wang, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China
Kai-Juan Wang, Department of Epidemiology and Statistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China
Kai-Juan Wang, Henan Key Laboratory of Tumor Epidemiology and State Key Laboratory of Esophageal Cancer Prevention & Treatment, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Wang SY and Wang KJ contributed to this paper equally; Wang SY designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript, and contributed to the writing and editing of the manuscript, illustrations, and review of the literature; Wang KJ contributed to the discussion and design of the manuscript and illustrations, was responsible for quality control, and revised the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest 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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kai-Juan Wang, Department of Epidemiology and Statistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, No. 100 Kexue Avenue, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China. kjwang@163.com
Received: July 29, 2024
Revised: November 5, 2024
Accepted: December 10, 2024
Published online: February 14, 2025
Processing time: 164 Days and 20.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study highlights the role of Calculus bovis (CB) in regulating the liver cancer immune microenvironment through the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway. Active components in CB inhibit Wnt/β-catenin activation, reduce M2 tumour-associated macrophage polarization, and enhance anti-tumour immunity, suppressing liver cancer growth and spread. Multilevel experiments confirm CB’s potential as an anti-tumour agent, offering a foundation for new liver cancer treatments based on traditional Chinese medicine. Future research should explore CB’s effects across liver cancer subtypes and in combination with modern therapies to improve treatment efficacy and safety.