Identification of Plasma Metabolomic Profiling for Diagnosis of Esophageal Squamous-Cell Carcinoma Using an UPLC/TOF/MS Platform

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Ran Liu¹  Yuan Peng¹  Xiaobo Li¹  Yi Wang³  Enchun Pan³  Wei Guo²  Yuepu Pu¹ 

[1] Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China; E-Mails:;The First People’s Hospital of Huaian, Huaian 223000, Jiangsu, China; E-Mail:;Huaian Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Huaian 223001, Jiangsu, China; E-Mails:

关键词: metabolomics;    plasma;    esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma;    UPLC/TOF/MS;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms14058899

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Epidemiological studies indicated that esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC) is still one of the most common causes of cancer incidence in the world. Searching for valuable markers including circulating endogenous metabolites associated with the risk of esophageal cancer, is extremely important A comparative metabolomics study was performed by using ultraperformance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-accurate mass time-of-flight mass spectrometry to analyze 53 pairs of plasma samples from ESCC patients and healthy controls recruited in Huaian, China. The result identified a metabolomic profiling of plasma including 25 upregulated metabolites and five downregulated metabolites, for early diagnosis of ESCC. With a database-based verification protocol, 11 molecules were identified, and six upregulated molecules of interest in ESCC were found to belong to phospholipids as follows: phosphatidylserine, phosphatidic acid, phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, and sphinganine 1-phosphate. Clinical estimation of metabolic biomarkers through hierarchical cluster analysis in plasma samples from 17 ESCC patients and 29 healthy volunteers indicated that the present metabolite profile could distinguish ESCC patients from healthy individuals. The cluster of aberrant expression of these metabolites in ESCC indicates the critical role of phospholipid metabolism in the oncogenesis of ESCC and suggests its potential ability to assess the risk of ESCC development in addition to currently used risk factors.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland