Published online Oct 7, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i37.5313
Peer-review started: June 15, 2023
First decision: August 26, 2023
Revised: September 8, 2023
Accepted: September 14, 2023
Article in press: September 14, 2023
Published online: October 7, 2023
Processing time: 102 Days and 2.1 Hours
The incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) have been rising continuously. CRC has become the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and the 5-year survival rate of patients with advanced CRC is below 20%.
Early screening and precise targeted therapy are very important to improve the prognosis of CRC patients. Therefore, identifying novel therapeutic targets and early screening biomarkers is urgent for clinical practice.
To explore whether leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor B2 (LILRB2) can be used as a potential therapeutic target and noninvasive screening biomarker for CRC.
On the basis of previous proteomics, immunohistochemical staining was used to verify the expression of LILRB2 protein and its ligand angiopoietin-like protein 2 (ANGPTL2) protein in CRC cancer tissues and paired paracarcinoma tissues, and to explore the association between their expression and the clinicopathological features. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect serum LILRB2 concentration and explore the diagnostic efficacy for CRC.
LILRB2 protein is significantly overexpressed in CRC cancer tissues and is closely associated with peritumoral infiltration, distant metastasis and poor prognosis. LILRB2 may bind to the ligand ANGPTL2 protein, and the synergistic expression and interaction of the two proteins promotes CRC progression and metastasis. Serum LILRB2 concentration has high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in screening CRC, which is better than traditional carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9.
Therefore, LILRB2 protein can be used as a potential novel therapeutic target and noninvasive screening biomarker.
Novel LILRB2 protein is beneficial for early screening and precise treatment, which provides new opportunities to improve the prognosis of CRC patients.