Sept 20 : According to a study, targeting Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), an essential peptide factor for the growth and differentiation of neuronal cells, may help cure liver cancer, the second most dreadful cancer.

The study was conducted by researchers from the National Research Council of Italy, Marino Hospital in Rome, Regina Elena Cancer Institute in Rome, and University of Rome led by Dr Annalucia Serafino.

The scientists revealed that in patients’ livers troubled with liver cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), NGF and its receptor TRKA NGF were expressed, whereas these two molecules were not detected in the livers of healthy people.

In order to affect a cell by a growth factor, it is necessary that there should be its specific receptor expressed on the surface of the target cell.

In the liver of patients, both NGF and its specific receptor are expressed abnormally, NGF is either expressed by liver cells to affect themselves, so called as autocrine, or to affect adjacent cells, called as paracrine, in patients with liver cirrhosis and/or HCC.

Based on these discoveries, it can be understood that a critical role is being played by NGF in the development of liver cirrhosis and its progression towards HCC.

The study will be published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. (ANI)