Glypican-3 is a protein which belongs to the glypican family and is encoded by the gene GPC3 in humans. It consists of heparin sulphate proteoglycans cell surface and plays a role in modulation and control of cell division and regulation of growth.

 

Glypican-3 is also an emerging therapeutic target for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver cancer is rated as the fifth prevalent cancer globally and third most cause of death related with cancer. Various studies have confirmed the potential of Glypican-3 as target for liver cancer. This is as it is known to show over expression in HCC and is not expressed in normal conditions.

 

Hsu et al showed that glypican-3 m RNA was expressed in high level in 9 out of 14 samples of HCC. A marked increase of 21.7 fold in m RNA of glypican-3 was observed when compared with normal liver expression, while 7 and 10 fold increase was observed in cases of Focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) and liver cirrhosis. Glypican-3 can also be used as a tool in histopathologic disease process for differentiation between various liver conditions like liver cirrhosis, dysplastic nodules, and HCC.

 

The high expression levels of glypican-3 make it a lucrative target for development of therapeutic antibodies for treatment of HCC patients. Further studies can help in providing a pathway to new discovery of antibodies for HCC.