Urinary signatures of Renal Cell Carcinoma investigated by peptidomic approaches

PLoS One. 2014 Sep 9;9(9):e106684. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106684. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) is typically asymptomatic and surgery usually increases patient's lifespan only for early stage tumours. Moreover, solid renal masses cannot be confidently differentiated from RCC. Therefore, markers to distinguish malignant kidney tumours and for their detection are needed. Two different peptide signatures were obtained by a MALDI-TOF profiling approach based on urine pre-purification by C8 magnetic beads. One cluster of 12 signals could differentiate malignant tumours (n = 137) from benign renal masses and controls (n = 153) with sensitivity of 76% and specificity of 87% in the validation set. A second cluster of 12 signals distinguished clear cell RCC (n = 118) from controls (n = 137) with sensitivity and specificity values of 84% and 91%, respectively. Most of the peptide signals used in the two models were observed at higher abundance in patient urines and could be identified as fragments of proteins involved in tumour pathogenesis and progression. Among them: the Meprin 1α with a pro-angiogenic activity, the Probable G-protein coupled receptor 162, belonging to the GPCRs family and known to be associated with several key functions in cancer, the Osteopontin that strongly correlates to tumour stages and invasiveness, the Phosphorylase b kinase regulatory subunit alpha and the SeCreted and TransMembrane protein 1.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Carcinoma, Renal Cell / urine*
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Kidney Neoplasms / urine*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Peptides / urine*
  • Proteomics*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Peptides

Grants and funding

FM was supported by grants from the Italian Ministry of University and Research: FIRB 2007 (Rete nazionale per lo studio del proteoma umano, no.RBRN07BMCT_11; http://www.ihpnet.it), Fondi Ateneo 2010-2013 (http://www.unimib.it/), and in part by the EuroKUP COST Action (BM1104) Mass Spectrometry Imaging: New Tools for Healthcare Research (http://www.maldi-msi.org/). The research leading to these results has also received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7 2007-2013 under grant agreement FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-608332 (http://www.imodeckd.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.