Project description:Although hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been subjected to continuous investigation and its symptoms are well-known, early stage diagnosis of this disease remains difficult and the survival rate after diagnosis is typically very low (3−5%). Early and accurate detection of metabolic changes in the sera of patients with liver cirrhosis can help improve the prognosis of HCC and lead to a better understanding of its mechanism at the molecular level, thus providing patients with in-time treatment of the disease. In this study, we compared metabolite levels in sera of 40 HCC patients and 49 cirrhosis patients from Egypt by using ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (UPLC-QTOF MS). Following data preprocessing, the most relevant ions in distinguishing HCC cases from cirrhotic controls are selected by statistical methods. Putative metabolite identifications for these ions are obtained through mass-based database search. The identities of some of the putative identifications are verified by comparing their MS/MS fragmentation patterns and retention times with those from authentic compounds. Finally, the serum samples are reanalyzed for quantitation of selected metabolites as candidate biomarkers of HCC. This quantitation was performed using isotope dilution by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) on a triple quadrupole linear ion trap (QqQLIT) coupled to UPLC. Statistical analysis of the UPLC-QTOF data identified 274 monoisotopic ion masses with statistically significant differences in ion intensities between HCC cases and cirrhotic controls. Putative identifications were obtained for 158 ions by mass based search against databases. We verified the identities of selected putative identifications including glycholic acid (GCA), glycodeoxycholic acid (GDCA), 3β, 6β-dihydroxy-5β-cholan-24-oic acid, oleoyl carnitine, and Phe-Phe. SRM-based quantitation confirmed significant differences between HCC and cirrhotic controls in metabolite levels of bile acid metabolites, long chain carnitines and small peptide. Our study provides useful insight into appropriate experimental design and computational methods for serum biomarker discovery using LC−MS/MS based metabolomics. This study has led to the identification of candidate biomarkers with significant changes in metabolite levels between HCC cases and cirrhotic controls. This is the first MS-based metabolic biomarker discovery study on Egyptian subjects that led to the identification of candidate metabolites that discriminate early stage HCC from patients with liver cirrhosis.
Project description:Saliva is rich in proteins, DNA, RNA and microorganisms, and can be regarded as a biomarker library. In order to explore a noninvasive and simple means of early screening for liver cancer, proteomics was used to screen salivary markers of hepatitis B associated liver cancer. We used mass spectrometry coupled isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-technology to identify differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). Western blot, immunohistochemistry and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay were used to detect marker expression of in tissues and saliva. Statistical analysis was used to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of the markers was analyzed through statistical analyses. By comparing the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) group with non-HCC groups, we screened out 152 salivary DEPs. We found orosomucoid 1(ORM1) had significantly higher expression in saliva of HCC patients compared with non-HCC groups (p<0.001) and the expression of ORM1 in liver cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues(p<0.001). The combination of salivary ORM1 and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) showed reasonable specificities and sensitivities for detecting HCC. In a word, salivary ORM1 as a new biomarker of hepatitis B associated hepatocellular carcinoma, combination of salivary ORM1 and AFP as an improved diagnostic tool for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Project description:We analyzed the proteome of tumor and matched non-tumor biopsies from 51 treatment-naive Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients by DIA (SWATH). Thereby we aim to find subgroups of patients characterized by specific pathway activation. Furthermore, we aim to find novel factors involved in HCC development and novel biomarkers.
Project description:Background: It is a challenge to identify those patients who, after undergoing potentially curative treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma, are at greatest risk of recurrence. Such high-risk patients could receive novel interventional measures. An obstacle to the development of genome-based predictors of outcome in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma has been the lack of a means to carry out genomewide expression profiling of fixed, as opposed to frozen, tissues. Methods: We aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of gene-expression profiling of more than 6000 human genes in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues. We applied the method to tissues from 307 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, from four series of patients, to discover and validate a gene-expression signature associated with survival. Results: The expression-profiling method for formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue was highly effective: samples from 90% of the patients yielded data of high quality, including samples that had been archived for more than 24 years. Gene-expression profiles of tumor tissue failed to yield a significant association with survival. In contrast, profiles of the surrounding nontumoral liver tissue were highly correlated with survival in a training set of 82 Japanese patients, and the signature was validated in tissues from an independent group of 225 patients from the United States and Europe (p = 0.04). Conclusions: We have demonstrated the feasibility of genomewide expression profiling of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues and have shown that a reproducible gene-expression signature correlating with survival is present in liver tissue adjacent to the tumor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Expression array, Illumina, Signatures, Outcome prediction Training cohort: 80 tumor and 82 non-tumor liver tissues surgically resected from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); Validation cohort: 225 non-tumor liver tissues surgically resected from patients with HCC. Clinical data has been withheld from GEO due to privacy concerns.
Project description:Tumor samples and matching healthy tissue from 23 human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and one hepatocellular adenoma patient were collected after surgical resection. Total RNA was harvested and sequenced with a strand-specific single-end RNA-seq protocol.
Project description:Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs longer than 200 nt that function in endogenous gene regulation and tumorigenesis. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a heterogeneous disease with different treatment outcome. It is a challenge to develop a prognostic marker to identify HCC patients who are at greatest risk for recurrence or death. In this study, we try to screen lncRNAs whose expression levels are associated with recurrence or death of HCC patients through an extensive lncRNA profiling study on a cohort of 59 HCC patients.
Project description:We analyzed the phospho-proteome of tumor and matched non-tumor biopsies from 51 treatment-naive Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients by label-free DDA. Thereby we aim to find subgroups of patients characterized by specific pathway activation. Furthermore, we aim to find novel factors involved in HCC development and novel biomarkers.