Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer; cancer biomarker discovery is important for disease detection and management. It is known that hyaluronic acid and its receptors are ubiquitously expressed in almost all human tissues. Earlier we have shown that a monoclonal antibody H11B2C2, presently known as UNIVmAb, reactive hyaladherin expressed in multiple human cancers mainly using immunohistochemistry. However, the nature of the antigen and its sequence homology are not known. In the current study, a comprehensive investigation was performed to explore the nature of the antigen and its homology using both biochemical and proteomic analysis. Our results showed that UNIVmAb reactive 57 kDa antigen was overexpressed in advanced grade colorectal cancer tissues compared to benign and its hyperplasia. Biochemical investigations including biotinylated hyaluronic acid-pulldown, Immunoprecipitation, HA-oligo competition experiments confirmed that the UNIVmAb reactive 57 kDa antigen is a member of hyaladherin. Further Proteomic analysis showed that the antigen has homology with IGHG1 (Igγ-1 chain C region), a possible IgG superfamily, and is associated with human serum albumin.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer (CRC); UNIVmAb; extracellular matrix (ECM); hyaladherin (HD); hyaluronic acid (HA); hyaluronic acid-binding protein (HABP); immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF).