Toll-like receptor 4: a target for chemoprevention of hepatocellular carcinoma in obesity and steatohepatitis

The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is rapidly increasing. We aimed to elucidate the genetic basis of NAFLD-associated HCC and identify candidate targets for chemoprevention. Twenty HCC tumors, distant liver and matched tails from mice with hepatocyte-deletion of Pten (HepPten(-)) were subjected to whole-exome sequencing. A total of 162 genes with somatic non-synonymous single nucleotide variants or exonic small insertions and deletions in tumors were identified. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis of these 162 genes, further identified Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4, a key mediator of proinflammatory responses, and resatorvid, a TLR4 inhibitor, as the main causal networks of this dataset. Resatorvid treatment strongly prevented HCC development in these mice (p < 0.001). Remarkably, HCC patients with high tumoral TLR4 mRNA expression were more likely to be diagnosed with NAFLD and obese. TLR4 mRNA expression positively correlated with IL-6 and IL-10 mRNA expression in HCC tumors and the correlation was stronger in obese HCC patients. We have identified tumor mutation signatures and associated causal networks in NAFLD-associated HCC in HepPten(-) mice and further demonstrated the important role of TLR4 in promoting HCC development. This study also identified IL-6 and IL-10 as markers of TLR4 activation in HCC and subjects with NAFLD and obesity as the target population who would benefit from TLR4 inhibition treatment for HCC chemoprevention.