Copyright
©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Metabolomic alterations and chromosomal instability status in gastric cancer
Cheng-Kun Tsai, Ta-Sen Yeh, Ren-Chin Wu, Ying-Chieh Lai, Meng-Han Chiang, Kuan-Ying Lu, Cheng-Yu Hung, Hung-Yao Ho, Mei-Ling Cheng, Gigin Lin
Cheng-Kun Tsai, Meng-Han Chiang, Hung-Yao Ho, Mei-Ling Cheng, Gigin Lin, Clinical Metabolomics Core Lab, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Cheng-Kun Tsai, Ying-Chieh Lai, Meng-Han Chiang, Kuan-Ying Lu, Cheng-Yu Hung, Gigin Lin, Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Imaging Core Lab, Institute for Radiological Research, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Ta-Sen Yeh, Department of Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Ren-Chin Wu, Department of Pathology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Hung-Yao Ho, Department of Medical Biotechnology and Laboratory Science, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Mei-Ling Cheng, Department of Biomedical Science, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Author contributions: Lin G conceived and designed the experiments; Yeh TS, Chiang MH, Lu KY and Hung CY performed the experiments; Tsai CK and Chiang MH analyzed the data; Wu RC, Lai YC, Ho HY and Cheng ML contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools; Tsai CK and Lin G wrote the paper.
Supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology Taiwan grant, No. MOST 106-2314-B-182A-019-MY3; the Chang Gung Foundation, No. CMRPG3E1321-2, No. IRB201601916B0, and No. IRB103-7448B.
Institutional review board statement: All procedures in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
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: Gigin Lin, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Imaging Core Lab, Institute for Radiological Research, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou and Chang Gung University, No. 5, Fuxing St., Guishan Dist., Taoyuan 333, Taiwan. giginlin@cgmh.org.tw
Telephone: +886-3-3281200 Fax: +886-3-3971936
Received: May 22, 2018
Peer-review started: May 23, 2018
First decision: June 13, 2018
Revised: June 27, 2018
Accepted: July 16, 2018
Article in press: July 16, 2018
Published online: September 7, 2018
Processing time: 106 Days and 21.7 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies. GC can be histologically classified using the Lauren classification system, which divides GC into diffuse and intestinal subtypes. The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Group (TCGA) has developed molecular classification systems based on gene expression profiling. Metabolomics may offer practical solutions to the traditional methods for GC detection and treatment. We hypothesize that metabolic alternations reflect the chromosomal instability (CIN) or genomic stability status of GC and aim to study the comprehensive metabolomic profiles of GC and correlate them with its CIN status.
Research motivation
The numerous biomarkers discovered from metabolomic studies may play a noteworthy role in GC with regard to early-stage detection, diagnosis, prognosis, drug development, and chemosensitivity predictions, but the evidence of metabolomics’ association with CIN status remains lacking.
Research objectives
The aim of our study was to explore the correlation of metabolomics profiles of GC and its CIN status.
Research methods
Based on 409 oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes sequenced, 19 GC patients were classified as CIN and non-CIN type by TCGA. The aqueous metabolites of the GC tumor and its surrounding adjacent healthy tissues were identified through liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Research results
GC tumors demonstrated significantly higher aspartic acid, citicoline, glutamic acid, oxidized glutathione, succinyladenosine, and uridine diphosphate-N-acetylglucosamine levels, but significantly lower butyrylcarnitine, glutathione hydroxyhexanoycarnitine, inosinic acid, isovalerylcarnitine, and threonine levels compared to the adjacent healthy tissues. CIN tumors contained significantly higher phosphocholine and uridine 5’-monophosphate levels but significantly lower beta-citryl-L-glutamic acid level than did non-CIN tumors. CIN GC tumors demonstrated additional altered pathways involving alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, histidine metabolism, and phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan biosynthesis.
Research conclusions
Metabolomic profiles of GC tumors and the adjacent healthy tissue are distinct, and the CIN status is associated with downstream metabolic alterations in GC.
Research perspectives
The combination of classification method of gene molecules and a metabolomics method may reveal that metabolic information can be used to accurately classify tumors. These findings on metabolomics profiling based on CIN status have translational potential for biomarker discovery and novel therapeutic development.
