Title:Towards Tyrosine Metabolism in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
VOLUME: 20 ISSUE: 2
Author(s):Jing Cheng, Guangyong Zheng*, Hai Jin and Xianfu Gao*
Affiliation:Department of Medical Instrument, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai 201318, Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031
Keywords:ESCC, metabolomics, LC-MS/MS, tyrosine metabolism, diagnostic biomarker, prediction model.
Abstract:Background: Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC) is a common malignant
tumor in China, which causes about 200,000 deaths each year. Sensitive biomarkers are helpful to
diagnose the disease in early stage.
Methods: To identify biomarkers of ESCC and elucidate underlying mechanism of the disease, a
targeted metabolomics strategy based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/
MS) has been implemented to explore tyrosine metabolism from 40 ESCC patients and 27
healthy controls.
Results: Four metabolites, i.e. phenylalanine, 4-hydroxyphenyllactic acid, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine,
and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid were identified as diagnostic biomarkers for ESCC
patients. Based on these biomarkers, a prediction model was constructed for ESCC diagnosis. The
analysis of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve confirmed its effectiveness of the model.
Conclusion: Our results reveal that tyrosine metabolism is disturbed in ESCC patients and the
metabolites involved in tyrosine pathway can be used as diagnostic biomarkers of the disease.
Findings of this study can help investigate pathogenesis of ESCC and facilitate understanding
mechanism of the disease.
