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A new methodology to reveal potential nucleic acid modifications associated with the risk of endometrial cancer through dispersive solid-phase extraction coupled with UHPLC-QE-Orbitrap-MS/MS and HPLC–UV

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Abstract

Nucleic acid modifications have attracted increasing attention in recent years since they have been found to be related to a number of diseases including cancer. Previous studies have shown that the early development of endometrial cancer (EC) is often accompanied by changes in methylation levels of related genes, and the expression of related proteins that regulate reactive oxygen species (ROS) shows significant differences in EC cells and tissues. However, it has not been reported whether nucleic acid modifications related to methylation or ROS can serve as biomarkers for EC. Accurate quantification of these nucleic acid modifications still has challenges because their amounts in urine are very low and the interferences in urine are complicated. In this study, a novel dispersive solid-phase extraction (DSPE) method based on chitosan-carbon nanotube-Al2O3 (CS-CNT-Al2O3) has been established for the analysis of 5-hydroxymethyluracil (5 mU), 5-methyl-2′-deoxycytidine (5-mdC), 5-hydroxymethyl-2′-deoxycytidine (5-hmdC), 5-formyl-2′-deoxycytidine (5-fdC), and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in EC patient urine samples coupled with UHPLC-QE-Orbitrap-MS/MS and HPLC–UV. Firstly, the synthesis of the CS-CNT-Al2O3 nanocomposite was conducted by a sono-coprecipitation method and was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Under the optimal extraction conditions of DSPE, we successfully quantified 5 mU, 5-mdC, 5-hmdC, 5-fdC, and 8-OHdG in urine samples from 37 EC patients and 39 healthy controls. The results showed that there were significant differences in the levels of 5-mdC, 5-hmdC, 5-fdC, and 8-OHdG in EC patients compared to the healthy control group. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was carried out to evaluate the potential of 5-mdC, 5-hmdC, 5-fdC, and 8-OHdG to distinguish EC patients from healthy volunteers. The area under the curve (AUC) for 5-mdC, 5-hmdC, 5-fdC, and 8-OHdG was 0.7412, 0.667, 0.8438, and 0.7981, respectively. It indicated that 5-mdC, 5-hmdC, 5-fdC, and 8-OHdG had certain potential in distinguishing between EC patients and healthy volunteers and they could act as potential non-invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis of EC. Moreover, the present study would stimulate investigations of the effects of nucleic acid modifications on the initiation and progression of EC.

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Acknowledgements

This work was done in collaboration with Hebei Medical University and the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University.

Funding

The authors received financial support provided by the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (H2022206240), the Medical Science Foundation of Hebei Provine (20220080), and the Research Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine Administration of Hebei Province (2023357).

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  1. Huanhuan Zhao and Xiaoguang Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050011, Hebei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Huanhuan Zhao, Li Li, Mengyu Zhang & Na Wang

  2. Core Facilities and Centers, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050017, Hebei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoguang Zhang

  3. College of Pharmacy, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050017, Hebei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Lujie Zuo, Qingzhong Jia & Yan Liu

  4. Department of Medical Laboratory, Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050011, Hebei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Hongfang Yang

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Contributions

Z H, Z X, J Q, L Y: CS-CNT-Al2O3-DSPE conception and design, urine sample collection, data analysis and interpretation, UHPLC-QE-MS/MS and HPLC–UV analysis, manuscript writing, and final approval of the manuscript; Z L, L L, Y H, Z W, W N: urine sample collection, creatinine detection, UHPLC-QE-Orbitrap-MS/MS and HPLC–UV analysis, manuscript writing, and final approval of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Qingzhong Jia or Yan Liu.

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The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University (ethics approval number: 2022KY412). All the urine samples in our present work were obtained from the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University.

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The original online version of this article was revised: The order of the literature numbers in Table 4, column 8 was wrong, which is different from the description in the paper.

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Zhao, H., Zhang, X., Zuo, L. et al. A new methodology to reveal potential nucleic acid modifications associated with the risk of endometrial cancer through dispersive solid-phase extraction coupled with UHPLC-QE-Orbitrap-MS/MS and HPLC–UV. Anal Bioanal Chem 416, 2439–2452 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-024-05206-y

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