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Chávez-López et al. Hepatoma Res 2020;6:14 Hepatoma Research
DOI: 10.20517/2394-5079.2019.023

Review Open Access

Ion channels in liver diseases and hepatocellular
carcinoma: potential tools for diagnosis, prognosis,

and therapy

María de Guadalupe Chávez-López , Andrea Cruz-Díaz , Karla Nicol Tlapalcoyoa-Apanco , Julio Isael
2
2
1
Pérez-Carreón , Javier Camacho 1
3
1 Department of Pharmacology, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City
07360, Mexico.
2 Escuela de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Valle de México, Mexico City 04910, Mexico.
3 Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica, Mexico City 14610, Mexico.
Correspondence to: Dr. Javier Camacho, Department of Pharmacology, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del
Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Avenida Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, Mexico City 07360, Mexico.
E-mail: fcamacho@cinvestav.mx

How to cite this article: Chávez-López MG, Cruz-Díaz A, Tlapalcoyoa-Apanco KN, Pérez-Carreón JI, Camacho J. Ion channels
in liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma: potential tools for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. Hepatoma Res 2020;6:14.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-5079.2019.023

Received: 25 Oct 2019 First Decision: 22 Nov 2019 Revised: 15 Mar 2020 Accepted: 23 Mar 2020 Published: 10 Apr 2020
Received: First Decision: Revised: Accepted: Published:
Science Editor: Dalbir Singh Sandhu Copy Editor: Jing-Wen Zhang Production Editor: Jing Yu
Science Editor: Copy Editor: Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract
Cancer is a major cause of death worldwide. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the malignancies with the
highest mortality-to-incidence ratio (> 0.9), and in some countries this value is up to 1. Unfortunately, many patients
are diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease. Therefore, HCC early markers, as well as novel therapeutic
approaches, are urgently needed. HCC is the main type of liver cancer and it is associated with different factors
including alcohol use, viral infections, and fatty liver disease. A significant percentage of HCC patients previously
had liver cirrhosis. Several ion channels have been proposed as novel potential markers and therapeutic targets
for diverse cancers including HCC. Here, we review most of the findings associating ion channel expression with
HCC and its etiological factors, as well as some possible pro-tumorigenic mechanisms of action for ion channels in
HCC. Novel therapies for HCC treatment and prevention are also discussed. Ion channel targeting offers a plethora
of opportunities for HCC prevention, early diagnosis, and therapy that may help to reduce the extremely high
mortality-to-incidence ratio of this malignancy.

Keywords: Ion channels, hepatocellular carcinoma, hepatitis virus, cirrhosis, liver disease, alcohol

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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