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Updated: Apr 21, 2026
The Use of Reverse Phase Protein Arrays RPPA to Explore Protein Expression Variation within Individual Renal Cell Cancers
Published on: January 22, 2013
Identification of potential serum proteomic biomarkers for clear cell renal cell carcinoma
Juan Yang1, Jin Yang2, Yan Gao2
1Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases of the Education Ministry, Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Medical School of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Objective:
To investigate discriminating protein patterns and serum biomarkers between clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients and healthy controls, as well as between paired pre- and post-operative ccRCC patients.
Methods:
We used magnetic bead-based separation followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) to identify patients with ccRCC. A total of 162 serum samples were analyzed in this study, among which there were 58 serum samples from ccRCC patients, 40 from additional paired pre- and post-operative ccRCC patients (n = 20), and 64 from healthy volunteers as healthy controls. ClinProTools software identified several distinct markers between ccRCC patients and healthy controls, as well as between pre- and post-operative patients.
Results:
Patients with ccRCC could be identified with a mean sensitivity of 88.38% and a mean specificity of 91.67%. Of 67 m/z peaks that differed among the ccRCC, healthy controls, pre- and post-operative ccRCC patients, 24 were significantly different (P<0.05). Three candidate peaks, which were upregulated in ccRCC group and showed a tendency to return to healthy control values after surgery, were identified as peptide regions of RNA-binding protein 6 (RBP6), tubulin beta chain (TUBB), and zinc finger protein 3 (ZFP3) with the m/z values of 1466.98, 1618.22, and 5905.23, respectively.
Conclusion:
MB-MALDI-TOF-MS method could generate serum peptidome profiles of ccRCC, and provide a new approach to identify potential biomarkers for diagnosis as well as prognosis of this malignancy.
