Published online Aug 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i22.7686
Peer-review started: March 17, 2022
First decision: May 12, 2022
Revised: May 19, 2022
Accepted: June 22, 2022
Article in press: June 22, 2022
Published online: August 6, 2022
Colorectal cancer (CRC) has become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide; however, its specific pathogenic mechanism has not been elucidated until now. Exploring the proteomic features of CRC, mining protein prognostic biomarkers and identifying precise therapeutic targets are important for improving the prognosis of CRC patients.
Despite improvements in diagnosis and treatment, the overall survival of CRC patients is still not very satisfactory. In particular, the 5-year survival rate of patients with advanced CRC remains less than 20%. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the clinical discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. With the development of proteomic technology, proteins are considered potential biomarkers and precision therapy targets in CRC.
To comprehensively characterize the proteomic features and identify novel prognostic biomarkers and precise therapeutic targets of CRC.
The differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were obtained by performing liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry detection of clinical samples, including colorectal cancer tissues and paired paracancerous tissues. Through further bioinformatic analysis, immunohistochemical (IHC) verification, and the correlation between DEPs and overall survival, protein prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for CRC were identified.
The authors first provide a comprehensive characterization of the proteomic signature of CRC. Compared with normal tissues, 1115 proteins were upregulated and 705 proteins downregulated in CRC based on a P adj < 0.05 and |log2FC| > 2 criteria, and the DEPs were involved in a variety of different molecular functions and signal transduction pathways. In addition, through IHC verification and survival analysis, we found that high expression of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A) protein was significantly correlated with poor prognosis in CRC. This demonstrated that CDKN2A could be used as a prognostic biomarker and a target for precision therapy in CRC.
The proteomic signature of CRC has been comprehensively characterized, and CDKN2A has strong potential as a prognostic biomarker and a target for precision therapy in CRC.
Novel protein prognostic biomarkers and precise therapeutic targets provide new opportunities to improve the prognosis of CRC patients.