Yang et al. demonstrated that α-syn may also play a protective role as a potential anti-tumorigenic in hepatocellular carcinoma by interacting with metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) and γ-synuclein, leading to the inhibition of tumorigenesis (Yang et al., 2023a). The gene discussed is GRM5; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.