Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 7, 2016; 22(21): 5060-5067
Published online Jun 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i21.5060
Serum Helicobacter pylori KatA and AhpC antibodies as novel biomarkers for gastric cancer
Bing Zhang, Hai-Lin Li, Qing Fan, Fang Guo, Xi-Yun Ren, Hai-Bo Zhou, Ji-Wei Zhu, Ya-Shuang Zhao, Wen-Jing Tian
Bing Zhang, Hai-Lin Li, Fang Guo, Xi-Yun Ren, Hai-Bo Zhou, Ya-Shuang Zhao, Wen-Jing Tian, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, Heilongjiang Province, China
Qing Fan, Xiangfang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin 150081, Heilongjiang Province, China
Ji-Wei Zhu, Department of Forensic Medicine, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, Heilongjiang Province, China
Author contributions: Tian WJ and Zhao YS designed research; Fan Q and Ren XY collected and collated the data; Zhang B, Li HL, Guo F, Zhou HB and Zhu JW performed the assays; Zhang B and Tian WJ analyzed the data; and Zhang B wrote the paper.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81573219; and Heilongjiang Province Office of Education Foundation, No. 12541288.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Committee of Human Research of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Wen-Jing Tian, Professor, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, 197 Xuefu Road, Harbin 150081, Heilongjiang Province, China. twj8267@sina.com
Telephone: +86-451-87502685 Fax: +86-451-87502885
Received: December 24, 2015
Peer-review started: December 25, 2015
First decision: January 13, 2016
Revised: January 27, 2016
Accepted: February 22, 2016
Article in press: February 22, 2016
Published online: June 7, 2016
Abstract

AIM: To investigate catalase (KatA) and alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (AhpC) antibodies of Helicobacter pylori as biomarkers for gastric cancer (GC).

METHODS: This study included 232 cases and 264 controls. Recombinant KatA and AhpC proteins were constructed and the levels of antibodies were tested by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Logistic regression was applied to analyze the relationships between KatA, AhpC and GC. The χ2 trend test was used to evaluate the dose-response relationships between serum KatA and AhpC antibody levels and GC. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the screening accuracy of KatA and AhpC as biomarkers. Combined analysis was used to observe screening accuracy of predictors for GC.

RESULTS: In all subjects, the association between KatA and AhpC and GC risk was significant (P < 0.001) with odds ratio (OR) = 12.84 (95%CI: 7.79-21.15) and OR = 2.4 (95%CI: 1.55-3.73), respectively. KatA and AhpC antibody levels were strongly related to GC risk with a dose-dependent effect (P for trend < 0.001). The area under the ROC (AUC) for KatA was 0.806, providing a sensitivity of 66.81% and specificity of 86.36%; and the AUC for AhpC was 0.615, with a sensitivity of 75.65% and specificity of 45.49%. The AUC was 0.906 for KatA and flagella protein A (FlaA) combined analysis.

CONCLUSION: Serum KatA and AhpC antibodies are associated with GC risk and KatA may serve as a biomarker for GC. KatA/FlaA combined analysis improved screening accuracy.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, Catalase, Serum antibody, Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase, Gastric cancer, Case-control study

Core tip: Effective screening methods for gastric cancer (GC) have remained limited to date. The aim of this study was to explore whether serum catalase and alkyl hydroperoxide reductase antibodies of Helicobacter pylori could serve as novel and reliable biomarkers for GC monitoring.