VIRMA and hepatocellular carcinoma: Compared with the LV-shCtrl group, the LV-shKIAA1429 group was associated with considerably decreased bioluminescence signal intensities in mice (Figs. 2g-h), dramatically reduced fluorescence signal intensities of lung metastatic nodules (Figs. 2i-j and Additional file 5: Figures S3c-d) and fewer metastatic foci in tissue sections of the lungs (Figs. 2k-l), illustrating that the lung metastatic potential of hepatoma cells could be facilitated by KIAA1429.