Humoral immune response to p16, a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor in human malignancies

The p16 protein is a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor, which plays an important role in the regulation of the cell cycle by inactivating the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) that phosphorylate retinoblastoma (Rb) protein. Overexpression of p16 protein has been found in many types of human malignancy. Antibody response to p16 in cancer has not been reported yet. This study determined the extent and frequency of autoantibodies to p16 in diverse malignancies. Cellular mRNA was extracted from Human epitheloid cervical carcinoma cells (Hela cell line), was further used as template for p16 cDNA cloning by Reverse-Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reactions (RT-PCR). p16 cDNA sequence was subcloned into a pGEX expression vector which has a glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene, and a pGEX-p16 construct was made for subsequent p16 recombinant protein expression. p16 recombinant protein was expressed in E. Coli XL1-blue cells, and purified using GST fusion protein purification system. In further studies, p16 recombinant proteins were used as antigens in enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) and Western blotting. Sera from 479 cancer patients and 82 normal individuals were analyzed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.

Humoral immune response to p16, a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor in human malignancies

The p 16 protein is a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor, which plays an important role in the regulation of the cell cycle by inactivating the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) that phosphorylates the retinoblastoma (Rb) protein. Overexpression of p16 protein has been found in many types of human malignancy. Autoantibody response to p16 in cancer has not been reported. This study determined the extent and frequency of autoantibodies to p16 in diverse malignancies. p16 recombinant protein was expressed in E. Coli BL21 (DE3) cells, and purified using GST fusion protein purification system. In further studies, p16 recombinant proteins were used as antigens in enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) and Western blotting. Sera from 479 cancer patients and 82 normal individuals were analyzed. Autoantibodies to p16 were found in 11.7% in cancer, with significant difference from the normal individuals (p < 0.05). The results in this study also showed that the frequency of antibodies to p16 is relatively higher in nasopharyngeal cancer (28.6%), breast cancer (17.1%) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, 21.4%). Of the 56 ELISA positive sera with the anti-p16 antibodies, 85.7% (48/56) had positive reactions in Western blotting. The antigen-antibody absorption experiment was also performed to confirm the specificity of the anti-p16 antibody. In order to increase the frequency of antibody detection in cancer, a combination of three tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) p16, p53 and c-myc were used. Increased frequencies at p < 0.01 were found for antibodies to p16 in breast, esophageal, and nasopharyngeal cancer as well as HCC. For antibodies to c-myc, increased frequencies at p < 0.01 were found in breast, cervical, colorectal and lung cancer. For antibodies to p53, increased frequencies at p < 0.01 were only found in breast cancer. With the successive addition of three TAAs, there was a stepwise increase of positive antibody reaction up to 44% in breast cancer and 43% in nasopharyngeal cancer. In summary, the results in this study suggest that the combination of antibodies might acquire higher sensitivity for early cancer diagnosis. It is conceivable that autoantibody profiles involving different panels or arrays of TAAs might be developed in the future and the results could be useful for cancer diagnosis

Autoantibodies to Ca2+ binding protein Calnuc is a potential marker in colon cancer detection.

Calnuc is a calcium (Ca2+) binding protein found in both Golgi and cytoplasm, and it may play a role in G protein- and Ca2+-regulated signal transduction events. This study was designed to investigate the possibility of whether Calnuc protein might be a tumor-associated antigen (TAA) that induces autoantibody response in human cancers, and to evaluate the feasibility of the Calnuc antigen-antibody system as a marker in cancer detection. Purified full-length recombinant Calnuc protein was used as an antigen in enzyme-linked immunoassay and Western blotting for the detection of autoantibodies in cancers. Sera from 447 patients with 9 different types of cancer were analyzed. Although the frequency of autoantibody to Calnuc was found to be 4.7% in total groups of cancer, it was not significantly different to that of normal individuals (1.2%). However, the frequency of autoantibody to Calnuc in colon cancer (11.5%) was significantly higher than that in normal individuals (1.2%). The expression analysis of Calnuc in multiple colon cancer tissues by immunohistochemistry on tissue array further confirmed the high specificity of Calnuc in colon cancer. Of 69 colon cancer tissue specimens examined, 41 tissues (59.4%) overexpressed Calnuc, while normal colon tissues did not show any expression of Calnuc. The subcellular distribution analysis of Calnuc examined by subcellular fractionation and immunofluorescence indicates that Calnuc is a membrane associated protein and mostly distributed in Golgi, which is consistent with previous reports. With adding Calnuc into a TAA array (including p53, c-myc, cyclin B1, cyclin D1), the cumulative frequency of antibody to multiple TAAs in colon cancer was raised to 65.4% which is significantly higher than the cumulative frequency in normal individuals (6.1%). This indicates that a mini-array of multiple TAAs which includes Calnuc might provide a novel non-invasive approach to enhance antibody detection for colon cancer diagnosis

Autoantibodies to Ca2+ binding protein Calnuc is a potential marker in colon cancer detection

Calnuc is a calcium (Ca2+) binding protein found in both Golgi and cytoplasm, and it may play a role in G protein- and Ca2+-regulated signal transduction events. This study was designed to investigate the possibility of whether Calnuc protein might be a tumor-associated antigen (TAA) that induces autoantibody response in human cancers, and to evaluate the feasibility of the Calnuc antigen-antibody system as a marker in cancer detection. Purified full-length recombinant Calnuc protein was used as an antigen in enzyme-linked immunoassay and Western blotting for the detection of autoantibodies in cancers. Sera from 447 patients with 9 different types of cancer were analyzed. Although the frequency of autoantibody to Calnuc was found to be 4.7% in total groups of cancer, it was not significantly different to that of normal individuals (1.2%). However, the frequency of autoantibody to Calnuc in colon cancer (11.5%) was significantly higher than that in normal individuals (1.2%). The expression analysis of Calnuc in multiple colon cancer tissues by immunohistochemistry on tissue array further confirmed the high specificity of Calnuc in colon cancer. Of 69 colon cancer tissue specimens examined, 41 tissues (59.4%) overexpressed Calnuc, while normal colon tissues did not show any expression of Calnuc. The subcellular distribution analysis of Calnuc examined by subcellular fractionation and immunofluorescence indicates that Calnuc is a membrane associated protein and mostly distributed in Golgi, which is consistent with previous reports. With adding Calnuc into a TAA array (including p53, c-myc, cyclin B I, cyclin D1), the cumulative frequency of antibody to multiple TAAs in colon cancer was raised to 65.4% which is significantly higher than the cumulative frequency in normal individuals (6.1%). This indicates that a mini-array of multiple TAAs which includes Calnuc might provide a novel non-invasive approach to enhance antibody detection for colon cancer diagnosis