Identification of Whole-Serum Glycobiomarkers for Colorectal Carcinoma Using Reverse-Phase Lectin Microarray

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry
• Oncology
• Biomarker Discovery

Background:

• Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading global cancer.
• Non-invasive biomarkers are crucial for early CRC detection and prognosis.
• Aberrant glycosylation of serum glycoproteins is a potential source for novel CRC biomarkers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify age-independent and CRC-specific glycomarkers in whole serum.
• To investigate the diagnostic potential of serum glycome using a panel of 16 lectins.
• To implement novel tools for identifying lectins with strong discrimination power.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of whole-serum glycome using 16 different lectins.
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses for biomarker evaluation.
• Glycan heat matrices and novel tool implementation for lectin discrimination.

Main Results:

• Identified specific glycosylation changes in serum associated with CRC.
• The combination of bisecting glycans (Phaseolus vulgaris erythroagglutinin) and human L selectin showed high diagnostic potential.
• Achieved an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.989, with 1.000 specificity and 0.900 sensitivity.

Conclusions:

• Serum glycome analysis reveals potential novel biomarkers for CRC diagnostics.
• Bisecting glycans and human L selectin represent a highly accurate glycomarker combination for CRC.
• This approach offers a promising non-invasive strategy for CRC detection.