At present, there is no screening test for the early detecting of ovarian cancer, one of the most lethal form of gynaecological malignancy in the worldwide. In this study the new methodology for the search of tumor markers of ovarian cancer, involving profiling the low-molecular blood plasma proteomes, is developed, unified and approved. The given approach included three basic components: pre-preparation of samples, matrix-assisted laser desorption / ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and bioinformatics software for mass spectral data processing. Opportunities and prospects of the developed approach for the detection of potential ovarian cancer markers were shown. For search of potential tumor markers, screening of 56 blood plasma samples from ovarian cancer patients and 36 benign ovarian neoplasia samples were carried out. As a result of the present research, peptides / polypeptides which can be used in future for detecting this pathology were found out.
Mass spectrometric proteome profiling of tumor pleural effusion (TPE) liquid fraction from ovarian cancer patients was performed to identify the potential biomarkers of the disease. The methodology of analysis of the TPE protein composition included the removal of high-abundant proteins by affinity chromatography, additional fractionation of the low-abundant proteins based on their lipophilicity, and high-resolution mass spectrometric analysis. As a result, 190 proteins were indentified, 49% of them belonging to the groups of extracellular and membrane proteins. The application of several criteria to data analysis allowed us to generate a group of 26 proteins that are promising candidates for testing as ovarian cancer biomarkers.
Proteomics has recently found wide application to account for the molecular mechanisms of cancer and to search for biomarkers that may be used to diagnose and/or predict the development of the disease. The paper briefly reviews proteomic studies to detect ovarian cancer biomarkers, by taking into account different types of biological samples.
The proteome of ascites and pleural fluids (AF and PF) was mapped in patients with ovarian cancer (OC). 240 and 190 proteins were identified with a high degree of assurance in AF and PF, respectively. The major portion was extracellular and membrane proteins, which accounted for 45 and 49 % in AF and PF, respectively. Analysis of the proteomic maps of AF and PF indicated that 82 proteins were common to these biological fluids whereas 81 and 49 proteins were unique to AF and PF, respectively. A list of 46 potential markers for OC metastasis and potential markers for tropic OC metastasis over the peritoneal (17 proteins) and pleural (11 proteins) surfaces is given.
