Zhang X, Chen DB, Zhang R, Chen P, She SP, Yang Y, Ren LY, Chen HS. Immune checkpoint molecules signal regulatory protein alpha in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2025; 17(9): 109824 [DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i9.109824]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hong-Song Chen, Professor, Peking University People’s Hospital, Peking University Hepatology Institute, Infectious Disease and Hepatology Center of Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing Key Laboratory of Hepatitis C and Immunotherapy for Liver Diseases, Beijing International Cooperation Base for Science and Technology on NAFLD Diagnosis, Peking University People’s Hospital, No. 11 Xizhimen South Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100044, China. chenhongsong2999@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
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 Gastrointest Oncol. Sep 15, 2025; 17(9): 109824 Published online Sep 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i9.109824
Immune checkpoint molecules signal regulatory protein alpha in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma
Xue Zhang, Dong-Bo Chen, Rui Zhang, Pu Chen, Shao-Ping She, Yao Yang, Li-Ying Ren, Hong-Song Chen
Xue Zhang, Dong-Bo Chen, Shao-Ping She, Yao Yang, Li-Ying Ren, Hong-Song Chen, Peking University People’s Hospital, Peking University Hepatology Institute, Infectious Disease and Hepatology Center of Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing Key Laboratory of Hepatitis C and Immunotherapy for Liver Diseases, Beijing International Cooperation Base for Science and Technology on NAFLD Diagnosis, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing 100044, China
Rui Zhang, Department of Anesthesiology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China
Pu Chen, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, The Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu Province, China
Hong-Song Chen, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China
Co-first authors: Xue Zhang and Dong-Bo Chen.
Author contributions: Zhang X and Chen DB completed the literature review and article writing; Zhang R and Chen P completed the chart drawing; Chen HS designed the framework and content of the article; She SP, Yang Y and Ren LY participated in the revision of the article.
Supported by the National Key Sci-Tech Special Project of China, No. 2018ZX10302207; the Beijing Natural Science Foundation, No. 7222191; the Beijing Natural Science Foundation, No. 7244426; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Peking University, No. PKU2024XGK005; the Peking University Medicine Seed Fund for Interdisciplinary Research, No. BMU2021MX007 and No. BMU2022MX001; and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Peking University People’s Hospital Scientific Research Development Funds, No. RDY2020-06 and No. RDJ2022-14.
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: Hong-Song Chen, Professor, Peking University People’s Hospital, Peking University Hepatology Institute, Infectious Disease and Hepatology Center of Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing Key Laboratory of Hepatitis C and Immunotherapy for Liver Diseases, Beijing International Cooperation Base for Science and Technology on NAFLD Diagnosis, Peking University People’s Hospital, No. 11 Xizhimen South Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100044, China. chenhongsong2999@163.com
Received: May 26, 2025 Revised: June 29, 2025 Accepted: July 30, 2025 Published online: September 15, 2025 Processing time: 115 Days and 14.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignant tumor of the liver and one of the most common malignant tumors, as well as the third leading cause of cancer-related death. In recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors have emerged as a key strategy in cancer treatment. However, anti-programmed cell death 1/programmed death ligand 1 therapies, one of the main immunotherapeutic approaches, only elicit a response in only approximately 20% of advanced HCC. This suggests that there may be other immune checkpoints playing important roles in HCC immunotherapy. Recent studies have highlighted Signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPα) is a phagocytic checkpoint in macrophages and other immune cells, as a promising novel therapeutic target in tumor immunotherapy. This review summarizes current progress on SIRPα in HCC and identifies key challenges for future related research.
