Abstract
Introduction
Papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) are the most common thyroid malignancies that are often diagnosed as microcarcinomas when the tumor is less than one centimetre in diameter. Currently, there are no valid stratification strategies that would reliably assess the risk of lateral neck metastases and optimize surgical treatment.
Materials and methods
Aiming to find potential tissue biomarkers of metastatic potential, we conducted a cross-sectional proteomic pilot study on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues of metastatic (N = 10) and non-metastatic (N = 10) papillary thyroid microcarcinoma patients. Samples were analysed individually using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, and the differentially expressed proteins (DEP) were functionally annotated.
Results
We identified five overexpressed DEPs in the metastatic group (EPB41L2, CSE1L, GLIPR2, FGA and FGG) with a known association to tumour biology. Using bioinformatic-based tools, we found markedly different profiles of significantly enriched biological processes between the two groups.
Conclusions
The identified DEPs might have a role as potential tissue biomarkers for PTC metastases. However, further prospective research is needed to confirm our findings.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the study participants. he study was supported by the BIMIS—Biomedical Research Center Šalata, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia and infrastructural project CIuK (European Regional Development Fund, grant number KK.01.1.1.02.0016).
Funding
Scientific Center of Excellence for Reproductive and Regenerative Medicine (project “Reproductive and regenerative medicine—exploration of new platforms and potentials”, Grant Agreement KK.01.1.1.01.0008, which is funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund).
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Conceptualization—LG, RN and FM; investigation, methodology—FM, RN and MP; formal analysis, visualization—FM, RN and MP; supervision, validation—LG and MM; writing—original draft—LG, RN, FM, GS, SH and MP; writing—review and editing—all authors. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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432_2023_5452_MOESM1_ESM.jpg
Supplementary Figure 1. Violin plot showing the analysed experimental samples. Proteins were identified by MaxQuant 2.3.1.0. software and quantified by using the label free quantification (LFQ) algorithm. Log 2 of LFQ are plotted on the y axis to show sample consistency. (JPG 322 KB)
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Matovinovic, F., Novak, R., Hrkac, S. et al. In search of new stratification strategies: tissue proteomic profiling of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma in patients with localized disease and lateral neck metastases. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 149, 17405–17417 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-023-05452-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-023-05452-0