CDK9: Therapeutic Perspective in HCC Therapy

CDK9 is an important cell-cycle control enzyme essential in transcription, elongation, and mRNA maturation. Overexpression of CDK9 has been reported in several diseases, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and malignant melanoma. Recent research revealed that CDK9-inhibitors have a major impact on the induction of apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines. Despite surprisingly promising results in in vitro and in vivo research, no CDK9 related therapy is currently allowed in cases of HCC. Furthermore, due to their high specificity, the inhibitors had no effects on unaltered hepatocytes and no toxic effects were shown. Considering that they were well tolerated and showed relatively few severe side-effects in mice, CDK9- inhibitors would seem to be promising targets in HCC biomarker-guided immunotherapy. Studies have verified that CDK9 has a pivotal role in c-Myc-mediated tumor growth and CDK9 inhibitors inhibit not only its progression but diametrically decrease both the mass and size of HCC nodules. CDK9-inhibitors seem to be a promising target in HCC treatment.