Abstract
Despite the wide range of available colorectal cancer (CRC) screening tests, less than 50% of cases are detected at early stages. However, the identification of differentially expressed proteins or novel protein biomarkers in CRC may have some utility and, ultimately, improve patient care and survival. Proteomics combined with mass spectroscopy and liquid chromatography are emerging as powerful tools that have led to the discovery of potential markers in cancer biomarker discovery in several types of cancers. This article describes a novel technology that uses isotopic reagents to tag selected proteins that show a consistent pattern of differential expression in CRC.OBJECTIVE: To identify and validate potential biomarkers of colorectal adenocarcinoma using a proteomic approach.METHODS: Multidimensional liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to analyze biological samples labelled with isobaric mass tags for relative and absolute quantitation to identify differentially expressed proteins in human colorectal adenocarcinoma and paired normal mucosa for the discovery of cancerous biomarkers. Cancerous and noncancerous samples were compared using online and offline separation. Protein identification was performed using mass spectrometry. The downregulation of gelsolin protein in colorectal adenocarcinoma samples was confirmed by Western blot analysis and validated using immunohistochemistry.RESULTS: A total of 802 nonredundant proteins were identified in colorectal adenocarcinoma samples, 82 of which fell outside the expression range of 0.8 to 1.2, and were considered to be potential cancer-specific proteins. Immunohistochemistry revealed a complete absence of gelsolin expression in 86.89% of samples and a reduction of expression in 13.11% of samples, yielding a sensitivity of 86.89% and a specificity of 100% for distinguishing colorectal adenocarcinoma from normal tissue.CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that decreased expression of gelsolin is a potential biomarker of colorectal adenocarcinoma.