Mass Spectrometry-Based Salivary Proteomics for the Discovery of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

The 5-year survival rates for cases of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are only some 60%, mainly because 20%-40% of the patients develop a local relapse in the same or an adjacent anatomic region, even when the surgical margins are histologically tumour-free. Tumours are often discovered in an advanced stage because of the lack of specific symptoms and the diagnostic difficulties. The more advanced the stage of the tumour, the more invasive the diagnostic and treatment interventions needed. An early molecular diagnosis is therefore of vital importance in order to increase the survival rate. The aim of this study was to develop an efficient rapid and sensitive mass spectrometric method for the detection of differentially expressed proteins as tumour-specific biomarkers in saliva from HNSCC patients. Whole saliva samples were collected from patients with HNSCC and from healthy subjects. The proteins were profiled by using SDS PAGE, MALDI TOF/TOF mass spectrometry and the Mascot database search engine. Several potential tumour markers were identified, including annexin A1, beta- and gamma-actin, cytokeratin 4 and 13, zinc finger proteins and P53 pathway proteins. All of these proteins play a proven role in tumour genesis, and have not been detected previously in saliva. Salivary proteomics is a non-invasive specific method for cancer diagnosis and follow-up treatment. It provides facilities for the readily reproducible and reliable detection of tumours in early stages.

In Silico Analysis Validates Proteomic Findings of Formalin-fixed Paraffin Embedded Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Tissue

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Proteomic study of benign and malignant pleural effusion

“…MALDI-TOF-MS analysis can precisely separate and identify target proteins or peptides according to their mass-dependent velocities (m/z) (Ketterlinus et al 2005). It has recently been wildly applied to the diagnosis of cancer, such as prostate cancer (Villanueva et al 2006), oral cancer (Cheng et al 2005), thyroid cancer (Villanueva et al 2006), hepatocellular carcinoma (Liu et al 2014), bladder cancer (Schwamborn et al 2009), breast cancer (Hamler et al 2004), head-andneck squamous cell carcinoma (Jarai et al 2012), glioblastoma (Kumar et al 2010) and colorectal cancer (Deng et al 2013).…”

Annexin-A1 protein and its relationship to cortisol in human saliva

“…Oral epithelial cells, including cells of the buccal mucosa, tongue, small salivary glands as well as the parotid and submandibular salivary glands in humans (Dreier et al, 1998) also express AnxA1. This protein is also present in human mucosal secretions such as bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (Smith et al 1990) and more recently been detected in human saliva (Lorenz et al, 2011;Jarai et al, 2012).…”