Early detection of lung cancer by using an autoantibody panel in Chinese population

[Expression and Significance of ACIN1 mRNA in Platelets of Lung Cancer]

BACKGROUND

During the occurring and developing of tumor, tumor-educated platelets mRNA profiles were altered. Since platelets are anuclear, the level of mRNAs is probably post-transcriptional regulated by the splicing maturation of pre-mRNA and alternative splicing. Apoptotic chromatin condensation inducer 1 (ACIN1) has been shown to be a component of a splicing-dependent multiprotein exon junction complex (EJC) and was involved in mRNA metabolism associated with splicing. This study analyzed the expression of ACIN1 mRNA in platelets, and explored its potential as a biomarker of lung cancer.

METHODS

156 patients with lung cancer and 58 healthy controls in Shandong Cancer Hospital were collected. We isolated platelet pellets by low-speed centrifugation and extracted total RNA. The expression of ACIN1 mRNA in platelets was detected by RT-PCR, the results were analyzed statistically. And the relationship between expression of ACIN1 mRNA and clinical factors were also analyzed.

RESULTS

The expression level of ACIN1 mRNA in platelets of patients with lung cancer was significantly higher than that in platelets of healthy controls (P=0.015). The ROC curve showed that the area under the curve of ACIN1 mRNA for detecting lung cancer were 0.608. The expression of ACIN1 mRNA in platelets of lung cancer has no significant relationship with age, gender, pathological type and metastasis or not (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

ACIN1 mRNA was highly expressed in platelets of lung cancer patients, and the detection of its expression level might have potential clinical value for the diagnosis of lung cancer.

Serum microRNAs improving the diagnostic accuracy in lung cancer presenting with pulmonary nodules

Background

MicroRNA (miRNA) is an approach for early diagnosing of cancer. We validated a panel of miRNAs (hsa-miR-199a-3p, hsa-miR-148a-3p, hsa-miR-210-3p, hsa-miR-378d and hsa-miR-138-5p) to aid early diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma by blood test in lung cancer presenting with pulmonary nodules.

Methods

A total of 369 individuals who were detected pulmonary nodules by computed tomography (CT) scan were enrolled into this study. These patients included 274 pulmonary malignant or borderline lung diseases and 122 lung benign pulmonary nodules. When the lung nodules were detected by combining with CT scan, we got patient blood samples in 2 days. Patients' serum was collected within 2 days prior to miRNAs analyses. We performed miRNAs panel by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Results

The sensitivity of miRNAs panel was 34.0% and the specificity of miRNAs panel was 90.2%. In invasive adenocarcinoma, the sensitivity of miRNAs panel was 44.7%. The overall false positive rate of CT imaging for nodules and glass ground nodules (GGNs) was 33.1%. When miRNAs panel test positive patients combined with the nodule size, the false positive rate was decreased to 3.2%.

Conclusions

The greatest impact of using the miRNAs panel CT scan was decreasing the false positive. miRNAs panel can improve the diagnosis of lung cancer presenting with nodules combined with CT.

Blood based biomarkers beyond genomics for lung cancer screening

While there is considerable interest at the present time in the development of so-called liquid biopsy approaches for cancer detection based notably on circulating tumor DNA, there are other types of potential biomarkers that show promise for lung cancer screening and early detection. Here we review approaches and some of the promising markers based on proteomics, metabolomics and the immune response to tumor antigens in the form of autoantibodies.

Epitopes of MUC1 Tandem Repeats in Cancer as Revealed by Antibody Crystallography: Toward Glycopeptide Signature-Guided Therapy

Abnormally O-glycosylated MUC1 tandem repeat glycopeptide epitopes expressed by multiple types of cancer have long been attractive targets for therapy in the race against genetic mutations of tumor cells. Glycopeptide signature-guided therapy might be a more promising avenue than mutation signature-guided therapy. Three O-glycosylated peptide motifs, PDTR, GSTA, and GVTS, exist in a tandem repeat HGVTSAPDTRPAPGSTAPPA, containing five O-glycosylation sites. The exact peptide and sugar residues involved in antibody binding are poorly defined. Co-crystal structures of glycopeptides and respective monoclonal antibodies are very few. Here we review 3 groups of monoclonal antibodies: antibodies which only bind to peptide portion, antibodies which only bind to sugar portion, and antibodies which bind to both peptide and sugar portions. The antigenicity of peptide and sugar portions of glyco-MUC1 tandem repeat were analyzed according to available biochemical and structural data, especially the GSTA and GVTS motifs independent from the most studied PDTR. Tn is focused as a peptide-modifying residue in vaccine design, to induce glycopeptide-binding antibodies with cross reactivity to Tn-related tumor glycans, but not glycans of healthy cells. The unique requirement for the designs of antibody in antibody-drug conjugate, bi-specific antibodies, and chimeric antigen receptors are also discussed.

Liquid biopsy for early stage lung cancer

Liquid biopsy, which analyzes biological fluids especially blood specimen to detect and quantify circulating cancer biomarkers, have been rapidly introduced and represents a promising potency in clinical practice of lung cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Unlike conventional tissue biopsy, liquid biopsy is non-invasive, safe, simple in procedure, and is not influenced by manipulators' skills. Notably, some circulating cancer biomarkers are already detectable in disease with low-burden, making liquid biopsy feasible in detecting early stage lung cancer. In this review, we described a landscape of different liquid biopsy methods by highlighting the rationale and advantages, accessing the value of various circulating biomarkers and discussing their possible future development in the detection of early lung cancer.