Tumor-associated autoantibodies as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers

• Main Author: Eun-Wie Cho
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2012-12-01
• Series: BMB Reports
• Subjects: Biomarker; Diagnostic; Prognostic; Tumor-associated autoantibody; Tumor-associated autoantigen
• Online Access: http://www.jbmb.or.kr/jbmb/pdf.php?data=MTMwMTE0MTVAcGRmX3JhaW50cmFjZV9sZWV5c0AlNUI0NS0xMiU1RDEyMTIyNjE2MThfJTI4Njc3LTY4NSUyOUJNQl8xMi0yMzYucGRm

In the process of tumorigenesis, normal cells are remodeled to cancer cells and protein expression patterns are changed to those of tumor cells. A newly formed tumor microenvironment elicits the immune system and, as a result, a humoral immune response takes place. Although the tumor antigens are undetectable in sera at the early stage of tumorigenesis, the nature of an antibody amplification response to antigens makes tumor-associated autoantibodies as promising early biomarkers in cancer diagnosis. Moreover, the recent development of proteomic techniques that make neo-epitopes of tumor-associated autoantigens discovered concomitantly has opened a new area of ‘immuno-proteomics’, which presents tumor-associated autoantibody signatures and confers information to redefine the process of tumorigenesis. In this article, the strategies recently used to identify and validate serum autoantibodies are outlined and tumor-associated antigens suggested until now as diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers in various tumor types are reviewed. Also, the meaning of autoantibody signatures and their clinical utility in personalized medicine are discussed.