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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 27, 2025; 17(7): 106151
Published online Jul 27, 2025. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i7.106151
Published online Jul 27, 2025. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i7.106151
Deciphering the oncogenic role of Rac family small GTPase 3 in hepatocellular carcinoma through multiomics integration
Run Liu, Shi-De Li, Jian-Di Li, Gang Chen, Zhen-Bo Feng, Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Jin-Cheng Li, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Shi-De Li, Department of Information Management and Information System, School of Information and Management, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Rong-Quan He, Jia-Liang Wei, Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Co-first authors: Run Liu and Jin-Cheng Li.
Co-corresponding authors: Zhen-Bo Feng and Jia-Liang Wei.
Author contributions: Liu R and Li JC performed the internal immunohistochemical sample collection and experimental procedures, drafted the initial manuscript; Li SD, Li JD, He RQ, and Chen G conducted public data acquisition, curation, and statistical analysis; Feng ZB, Wei JL, He RQ, and Chen G critically revised the manuscript for substantial intellectual content; Feng ZB and Wei JL conceived and designed the study; all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82260581.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University Institutional Review Board (No. 2022-KT-NSFC-127).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: Data and material will be available on 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: Zhen-Bo Feng, MD, Professor, Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 6 Shuangyong Road, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. fengzhenbo_gxmu@163.com
Received: March 5, 2025
Revised: April 26, 2025
Accepted: June 11, 2025
Published online: July 27, 2025
Processing time: 142 Days and 21.2 Hours
Revised: April 26, 2025
Accepted: June 11, 2025
Published online: July 27, 2025
Processing time: 142 Days and 21.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study identifies Rac family small GTPase 3 (RAC3) as a critical oncogenic driver in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through multi functional validation. RAC3 overexpression correlates with advanced tumor stage and poor prognosis (hazard ratio = 1.82), while clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats screening confirms its necessity for HCC proliferation. Mechanistically, E2F transcription factor 1 transcriptionally activates RAC3, which drives cell-cycle dysregulation. These findings position RAC3 as a promising therapeutic target for combating chemotherapy resistance in HCC.