A new mission for an old anti-cancer drug:harnessing hepatocyte-specific metabolic pathways against liver tumors

In a recent study published in Nature Cancer,Shi et al.reported the identification of the small molecule YC-1 as the selective drug against primary liver tumor cells due to the specific expression of sulfotransferase family 1A member 1(SULT1A1)in hepatocytelineage cells.1 This study offered new insights into repurposing an old anti-cancer drug via harnessing hepatocyte-specific metabolic enzymes to treat primary liver tumors.