Targeted Suppression and Knockout of ASCT2 or LAT1 in Epithelial and Mesenchymal Human Liver Cancer Cells Fail to Inhibit Growth.

Amino acid transporters alanine-serine-cysteine transporter 2 (ASCT2) and L-Type Amino Acid Transporter 1 (LAT1) are coordinately enhanced in human cancers where among other roles, they are thought to drive mechanistic target-of-rapamycin (mTOR) growth signaling. To assess ASCT2 and LAT1 as therapeutic targets, nine unique short hairpin RNA (shRNA) vectors were used to stably suppress transporter expression in human epithelial (Hep3B) and mesenchymal (SK-Hep1) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines. In addition, six unique CRISPR-Cas9 vectors were used to edit the ASCT2 () and LAT1 () genes in epithelial (HUH7) and mesenchymal (SK-Hep1) HCC cells.