Role, regulatory mechanism and clinical correlation of YY1 in HCC

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent and malignant tumors with a high mortality rate worldwide. Due to the lack of diagnostic methods with high sensitivity and specificity, the majority of HCC patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage. New biomarkers and antitumor agents need to be explored for the diagnosis and treatment of HCC. The multifunctional transcription factor Yin Yang 1 (YY1) could act as a transcriptional activator or a repressor in the regulation of gene expression. YY1 has been shown to play pivotal roles in proliferation, metastasis, angiogenesis, metabolic disorder, apoptosis, and drug resistance during HCC progression. Recent studies also suggested that YY1 was a crucial transcription factor that interacted with the promoter of target genes to activate oncogenes or inhibit tumor suppressor genes to regulate downstream signaling pathways in HCC cells. Furthermore, many studies showed that YY1 was overexpressed in HCC tissues and high expression of YY1 was associated with poor disease-free survival and overall survival of patients with HCC. In this chapter, we summarized the role, regulatory mechanism, and clinical correlation of YY1 during HCC progression.