Beitia Maider, Romano Paolo, Larrinaga Gorka, Solano-Iturri Jon Danel, Salis Annalisa, Damonte Gianluca, Bruzzone Marco, Ceppi Marcello, Profumo Aldo
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Biscay, Spain.
Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Unit, IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, 16132 Genova, Italy.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2020 Dec 11;10(12):1077. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics10121077.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second cause of death in men and the third in women. This work deals with the study of the low molecular weight protein fraction of sera from patients who underwent surgery for CRC and who were followed for several years thereafter. MALDI-TOF MS was used to identify serum peptidome profiles of healthy controls, non-metastatic CRC patients and metastatic CRC patients. A multiple regression model was applied to signals preliminarily selected by SAM analysis to take into account the age and gender differences between the groups. We found that, while a signal m/z 2021.08, corresponding to the C3f fragment of the complement system, appears significantly increased only in serum from metastatic CRC patients, a m/z 1561.72 signal, identified as a prothrombin fragment, has a significantly increased abundance in serum from non-metastatic patients as well. The findings were also validated by a bootstrap resampling procedure. The present results provide the basis for further studies on large cohorts of patients in order to confirm C3f and prothrombin as potential serum biomarkers. Thus, new and non-invasive tests might be developed to improve the classification of colorectal cancer.
结直肠癌（CRC）是男性第二大致死原因，女性第三大致死原因。本研究针对接受CRC手术并随访数年的患者血清中的低分子量蛋白质组分展开。基质辅助激光解吸电离飞行时间质谱（MALDI-TOF MS）用于鉴定健康对照、非转移性CRC患者和转移性CRC患者的血清肽组图谱。采用多元回归模型对通过SAM分析初步筛选出的信号进行分析，以考虑各组之间的年龄和性别差异。我们发现，虽然对应补体系统C3f片段的m/z 2021.08信号仅在转移性CRC患者血清中显著升高，但鉴定为凝血酶原片段的m/z 1561.72信号在非转移性患者血清中的丰度也显著增加。研究结果还通过自助重采样程序得到验证。目前的结果为进一步研究大量患者队列提供了基础，以确认C3f和凝血酶原作为潜在的血清生物标志物。因此，可能会开发新的非侵入性检测方法来改善结直肠癌的分类。
