Mass-selected site-specific core-fucosylation of ceruloplasmin in alcohol-related hepatocellular carcinoma

J Proteome Res. 2014 Jun 6;13(6):2887-96. doi: 10.1021/pr500043k. Epub 2014 May 15.

Abstract

A mass spectrometry-based methodology has been developed to study changes in core-fucosylation of serum ceruloplasmin that are site-specific between cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The serum samples studied for these changes were from patients affected by cirrhosis or HCC with different etiologies, including alcohol, hepatitis B virus, or hepatitis C virus. The methods involved trypsin digestion of ceruloplasmin into peptides followed by Endo F3 digestion, which removed most of the glycan structure while retaining the innermost N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) and/or core-fucose bound to the peptide. This procedure simplified the structures for further analysis by mass spectrometry, where four core-fucosylated sites (sites 138, 358, 397, and 762) were detected in ceruloplasmin. The core-fucosylation ratio of three of these sites increased significantly in alcohol-related HCC samples (sample size = 24) compared to that in alcohol-related cirrhosis samples (sample size = 18), with the highest AUC value of 0.838 at site 138. When combining the core-fucosylation ratio of site 138 in ceruloplasmin and the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) value, the AUC value increased to 0.954 (ORsite138 = 12.26, p = 0.017; ORAFP = 3.64, p = 0.022), which was markedly improved compared to that of AFP (AUC = 0.867) (LR test p = 0.0002) alone. However, in HBV- or HCV-related liver diseases, no significant site-specific change in core-fucosylation of ceruloplasmin was observed between HCC and cirrhosis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Alcohol Drinking / adverse effects*
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / blood
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / chemistry
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / blood*
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / diagnosis
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / etiology
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Ceruloplasmin / chemistry
  • Ceruloplasmin / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Glycosylation
  • Hepatitis B / blood
  • Hepatitis B / complications
  • Hepatitis C / blood
  • Hepatitis C / complications
  • Humans
  • Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / blood*
  • Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / diagnosis
  • Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / etiology
  • Liver Neoplasms / blood*
  • Liver Neoplasms / diagnosis
  • Liver Neoplasms / etiology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Molecular Weight
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational
  • ROC Curve
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Ceruloplasmin