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Lung cancer is the major contributor to overall cancer-related mortality. Biomarkers are important in early detection and prognosis, in addition to developing treatment regimes, which may improve the patient survival rates. Biomarkers may also assist in investigating the in depth metabolic pathways and in establishing a set of therapeutic agents leading to early detection of the disease. The present study was designed to identify and confirm a lung cancer protein biomarker and to correlate the differential expression of the protein to a particular histological disease type. A total of 100 lung cancer patients and 50 healthy controls were included in the present study and were categorized into the two main histological types of lung cancer; non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; n=88) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC; n=12). NSCLC was further subclassified into three histological types; adenocarcinoma (n=34), squamous cell carcinoma (n=48) and large cell carcinoma (n=6). The patient and control serum samples underwent sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis characterization followed by two‑dimensional gel electrophoresis. Following mass spectrometry, human haptoglobin was identified with a mass of ~42‑46 kDa and an isoelectric point (pI) of ~5.5‑6.2. The experimental mass of the protein was found to be 45.8 kDa with a pI of 6.13. The matrix‑assisted laser desorption/ionization time‑of‑flight/time‑of‑flight data exhibited spectral peaks of 1146.134, 1724.191, 1345.339 and 2210.319 m/z and Mascot search analysis identified these peaks as haptoglobin (accession no. P00738; Mascot score 87; sequence coverage 23%). This protein was significantly overexpressed in squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma, as compared with the control. The present study described differentially expressed human haptoglobin as a lung cancer serum protein biomarker, which may serve as a diagnostic and therapeutic target and set a standard criteria for the evaluation of histological types of lung cancer compared with other disease types.

Aim: To determine the plasma anti-thyroperoxidase antibodies (Anti-TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (ATG) in hypothyroid patients Methods: This study was carried out at Arif Clinical Laboratory and Diagnostic center, Lahore. Samples were collected from 750 patients diagnosed with hypothyroidism. The blood samples were analyzed for the levels of anti-thyroperoxidase antibodies (n=450) and anti-thyroglobulin (n=300) antibodies. Depending upon the serum levels of these antibodies, the obtained titerswere categorized as normal, mildly elevated, moderately elevated and highly elevated. Duration of study was around08 months, extending from November 2021 to May 2022. Results: Among the total 750 patients with hypothyroidism, 450 were estimated for Anti-TPO antibodies, whereas, 400 patients were analyzed ATG antibodies. Anti-TPO antibodies were normal in 191 patients (42.44%) and high levels were observed in 259 patients (57.55%), indicating a greater role of these antibodies in the causation of hypothyroidism. In contrast, among the 300 patients analyzed for ATG antibodies, 213 patients had normal levels (71%), while 87 has high plasma levels of these antibodies (29%) Practical Implications: Current study provides an insight into the more frequent incidence of Anti-TPO antibodies, thus indicating its more crucial role in causing hypothyroidism in the given population. Therefore, estimation of these autoantibodies earlier in the disease can serve as better indicators of the severity and response to treatment, compared with Anti-TGB antibodies, which are present less frequently in patients with hypothyroidism Conclusion: Anti-TPO antibodies were found to be high in 57.55% patients (n=450) with hypothyroidism, indicating its greater role in the causation of hypothyroidism, whereas, ATG were high in only 29% patients (n=300). The results stress the need to evaluate all patients of hypothyroidism with plasma antibody levels for early diagnosis and a prompt management plan. Keywords: anti-thyroglobulin, anti-thyroperoxidase, hypothyroidism, Thyroxine, Triiodothyronine