Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks among the most prevalent and lethal cancers affecting humans. Currently, there are limited effective treatments available for HCC. Carfilzomib, a proteasome inhibitor, is known to exert anti-HCC activities
however, its underlying mechanisms of action remain unclear. In the present study, the efficacy of carfilzomib against HCC was evaluated and its underlying mechanisms were explored. Cell Counting Kit-8, 5-ethynyl-2-deoxyuridine staining and colony formation assays were employed to analyze the antiproliferative effect of carfilzomib on MHCC-97H and Huh7 cells. Additionally, flow cytometry was used to assess the effect of carfilzomib on the cell cycle and Transwell assays were used to evaluate the effect of carfilzomib on cell migration and invasion. Western blotting was utilized to examine the protein expression levels associated with cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, short hairpin RNA (shRNA) transfection was used to investigate the role of DNA damage inducible α (GADD45α) on carfilzomib-induced cell cycle arrest. A xenograft tumor model using nude mice was employed to evaluate the anti-HCC activity of carfilzomib