Identification of New Serum Biomarkers for Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis Using Lipid Microarrays

摘要

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women. Compared with other serum polypeptides, autoantibodies have many appealing features as biomarkers including sensitivity, stability, and easy detection. Anti-lipid autoantibodies are routinely used in the diagnosis of autoimmune disease, but their potential for cancer diagnosis has not been explored. Metabolism of lipids immediately follows cellular stimulation, resulting in various lipid metabolites. Dysregulation of cellular signaling in cancer cells would be expected to lead to irregular metabolism of many lipids, which could be sensed by immune system and cause the production of novel autoantibodies. Our hypothesis is that a broad and irregular change in lipid profiles in breast cancer cells results in the production of anti-lipid antibodies that could be used as biomarkers for early diagnosis. We have generated arrayed lipids on the membranes (lipid microarrays), and developed a new fluorescent detection method, which would allow us to better compare the serum reactivity to lipids. However, no serum response difference is observed in the breast cancer mice. We conclude that the current lipid microarray is not suitable for breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis yet.