(101CAP1003-3) Development of an Autoantibody---Based Pipeline for Verification of Targeted Cancer Biomarkers in Body Fluids (I)

Antibodies to tumor antigens possess benefits over other body fluid-accessible molecules as cancer biomarker candidates because they are highly specific, stable, and are easily detected with well-established secondary reagents. With the advances in protein expression and purification techniques, it is now feasible to profile the antibody response to human proteome using protein microarrays. Here, we plan to identify novel serum and saliva autoantibody biomarkers for diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). OSCC is a devastating disease that comprises 3% of all cancer cases diagnosed annually. In Taiwan, the most prevalent area of OSCC occurrence worldwide, the disease accounts for the fourth highest mortality of cancer patients. Unfortunately OSCC is usually diagnosed at advanced clinical stages, resulting in poor outcomes. Currently, there are no any biomarkers approved by health agencies for aiding the detection and/or prognosis of OSCC. Identification of specific OSCC biomarkers may therefore contribute to the development of long-term treatment strategies. In this project, we plan to apply protein microarrays to screen novel autoantibodies as OSCC biomarkers. In the initial phase, we will remove uninformative autoantigens by screening serum and saliva samples from the first cohort. In the second phase, we will use serum and saliva samples from an independent set to confirm the potential of autoantibodies from the first phase as OSCC biomarkers. Then, the autoantibodies selected from the initial two phases will be evaluated using clinically adoptable ELISAs in samples of the third cohort. Bead-based multiplexed immunoassays suitable for high-throughput quantitation of multiple targets will be established to evaluate the efficacy of identified antibodies as OSCC biomarkers in large numbers of serum and saliva samples. We believe that the platforms established for detecting the autoantibody panel can be easily adapted in other laboratories and hospitals. The autoantibody panel identified in this project will have a great impact on clinical aspects of OSCC management.

Project ID:PC10106-0080
External Project ID:NSC101-2325-B182-014