Cancer and Proteome profiling: “Extremely complex and incredibly close”

9 aprile 2015
9th April 2015
Contatti: 

Venue: Edificio Povo 2, via Sommarive nr. 9, Povo (Tn) - Room B101
 at 2:00 p.m.

  • Alfonsina D'Amato - Institute of Human Development, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

The study of Proteome profiling in models as human cell lines and/or in human fluids improve the understanding of the molecular mechanism of cancer development and eventually the discovery of specific proteins at early stage of cancer too. In particular we applied high advanced mass spectrometry techniques to study Ovarian Cancer (OC) disease. Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer. Most patients identified with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer present with widespread metastases. The overall 5-year survival is only 30% due to late diagnosis and resistance to chemotherapy. Muc16 (CA125) is the only clinically reliable diagnostic marker on serum, with the recent exception of HE4. There is an urgent and unmet need to improve the screening for the early detection of Ovarian Cancer. In this work we analyzed a high selected number of serum samples of ovarian cancer patients, at different months after the diagnosis (UKCTOCS, the United Kingdom Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening). The potentially markers were discovered by a Functional Quantitative Proteomic approach and the validation tests were measured using ELISA, SWATH and statistical analyses. We demonstrated the presence of several proteins in the serum, differential regulated during the stages of the ovarian cancer and above all during the time. These markers have the potential, when combined, for screening high-risk groups as early diagnosis tools.