Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 14, 2020; 26(22): 3024-3033
Published online Jun 14, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i22.3024
High plasma levels of COL10A1 are associated with advanced tumor stage in gastric cancer patients
Laura Necula, Lilia Matei, Denisa Dragu, Ioana Pitica, Ana Iulia Neagu, Coralia Bleotu, Simona Dima, Irinel Popescu, Carmen C Diaconu, Mihaela Chivu-Economescu
Laura Necula, Lilia Matei, Denisa Dragu, Ioana Pitica, Ana Iulia Neagu, Coralia Bleotu, Carmen C Diaconu, Mihaela Chivu-Economescu, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, Stefan S. Nicolau Institute of Virology, Bucharest 030304, Romania
Laura Necula, Titu Maiorescu University, Faculty of Medicine, Bucharest 040441, Romania
Simona Dima, Irinel Popescu, Fundeni Clinical Institute, Bucharest 022328, Romania
Author contributions: Necula L and Matei L equally contributed to this paper. Necula L, Chivu-Economescu M, and Matei L designed research; Dima S and Popescu I treated patients and collected material and clinical data from patients; Necula L, Matei L, Dragu D, and Pitica I performed the assays; Necula L, Matei L, Bleotu C, Diaconu CC, Chivu-and Economescu M analysed data; Necula L, Matei L, Neagu AI, and Chivu-Economescu M wrote the paper.
Supported by the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS - UEFISCDI, No. PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF-2016-0158 (contract PCCF 17/2018), within PNCDI III.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Stefan S. Nicolau Institute of Virology.
Conflict-of-interest statement: This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS - UEFISCDI, No. PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF-2016-0158 (contract PCCF 17/2018), within PNCDI III. All other authors have nothing to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Mihaela Chivu-Economescu, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Research Scientist, Senior Researcher, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, Stefan S. Nicolau Institute of Virology, 285 Mihai Bravu Ave, Bucharest 030304, Romania. mihaela.economescu@virology.ro
Received: December 24, 2019
Peer-review started: December 28, 2019
First decision: January 19, 2020
Revised: May 14, 2020
Accepted: May 28, 2020
Article in press: May 28, 2020
Published online: June 14, 2020
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer (GC) remains an aggressive malignancy with a high rate of mortality, being the third leading cause of cancer-related death. More than one million newly diagnosed cases and 782685 deaths due to GC were reported in 2018. GC is characterized by limited effective treatment options and the lack of consistent biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of these patients. The discovery of new biomarkers useful in the early diagnosis of GC is mandatory.

AIM

To evaluate the potential of COL10A1 as a circulating biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma patients.

METHODS

Plasma and tissue obtained from 49 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma have been used in exploring the expression of COL10A1. Real-time PCR and western blot techniques were used to evaluate COL10A1 level in gastric tumor tissue compared to normal adjacent tissue. The circulating level of COL10A1 was also evaluated by ELISA in plasma of gastric adenocarcinoma patients. Survival analysis was made in order to evaluate the potential of COL10A1 as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma patients.

RESULTS

Our results showed a significant increase in COL10A1 gene expression and protein levels in gastric tumor tissue compared to adjacent normal tissue (P < 0.05). COL10A1 seems to show an elevated expression from the beginning of carcinogenesis, in the early stages, and its increased level remains elevated during cancer progression. A significant increase of COL10A1 plasma level in gastric adenocarcinoma patients was also identified. Moreover, increased COL10A1 plasma level was associated with poor survival of the patients. Plasma COL10A1 performed a diagnostic value in GC with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.9171 (P = 0.0002), sensitivity of 87.76%, and specificity of 100.0%. Furthermore, this study demonstrated the potential role of plasma COL10A1 in the early detection of GC, as in the early stage, we obtained an AUC of 0.8789 (P = 0.0030), sensitivity of 81.25%, and specificity of 100.0%.

CONCLUSION

Circulating expression level of COL10A1 is significantly increased in gastric adenocarcinoma patients being associated with poor survival and is a potential biomarker for early detection of GC.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, COL10A1, Circulating biomarkers, Early diagnosis, Poor prognosis, Tumor stage

Core tip: Gastric cancer remains an aggressive malignancy with a high rate of mortality, characterized by limited effective treatment options and the lack of consistent biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of the patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of COL10A1 as a circulating biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma patients. Our results suggest that COL10A1 could be considered a good biomarker for prognosis and also for early detection, as its elevated expression occurred early and remained elevated during cancer progression.