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Updated: Sep 20, 2026
Preparation of Mitochondria from Ovarian Cancer Tissues and Control Ovarian Tissues for Quantitative Proteomics Analysis
Published on: November 18, 2019
Haptoglobin-alpha subunit as potential serum biomarker in ovarian cancer: identification and characterization using
Bin Ye1, Daniel W Cramer, Steven J Skates
1Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Bin-Ye@hms.harvard.edu
Purpose:
The objective of this study was to identify and characterize new serum biomarkers in ovarian cancer patients using mass spectrometric protein profiling and specific immunological assays.
Experimental Design:
Serum samples from 80 cancer patients and 91 healthy women were analyzed by surface enhanced laser desorption and ionization-mass spectrometry (MS) profiling. A candidate biomarker was purified by affinity chromatography, and its sequence was determined by liquid chromatography-tandem MS. An antibody was generated from the synthesized peptide for quantitative validation in the cases and controls. CA125 was determined and compared with the same set of specimens.
Results:
Using surface enhanced laser desorption and ionization, we found a serum biomarker at approximately 11700 Da, which had peak intensity significantly higher in cases (1.366) compared with controls (0.208, P = 0.002), and subsequently identified this as the alpha chain of haptoglobin. ELISA indicated that Hp-alpha was
Conclusions:
Haptoglobin-derived alpha subunit is a potential marker for ovarian cancer that is complementary to CA125. MS-based protein profiling is a valuable tool for screening protein markers and useful to detect post-translational modification of tumor-associated proteins or abnormal metabolic products. However, confirmation of protein identity with specific antibodies is crucial for clinical application and functional studies.
