title: Peptide Patterns as Discriminating Biomarkers in Plasma of Patients With Familial Adenomatous Polyposis.
abstract: Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is one of the most important clinical forms of inherited susceptibility to colorectal cancer. So far, no accepted prognostic markers are present to monitor patients with FAP. Consequently, the major problem in managing patients with FAP is the difficulty to predict when the switch between adenoma and malignant carcinoma occurs, leading to the necessity of preventive surgery. Proteomics is one of the most suitable approaches to identify biomarkers, and it is widely used in cancer research. In this investigation, we studied the circulating plasma peptides in samples collected from patients with FAP and compared the obtained results with adenoma, colorectal cancer, and control samples to discover peptides able to distinguish different phenotypes.
  
  
  
  The peptide fingerprint was obtained by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry. After statistical analysis, a subset of 45 ionic species was found differently expressed in the 4 groups considered, 12 of them peculiar to patients with FAP. Moreover, 4 ionic species were found significantly changed in the switch between adenoma and malignant carcinoma.
  
  
  
  Potentially prognostic peptides identified by this study derive mainly from circulating proteins, some of which are involved in the inflammatory response, such as complement C3 and C4 subjected to an exoprotease activity that seemed pathology related.
  
  
  
  In this study, we defined for the first time a specific panel of peptides for monitoring patients with FAP that could be profitably used to monitor and predict the pathologic evolution in adenocarcinoma malignancy.
authors.affiliation: First Surgical Clinic Section, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy; Istituto di Ricerca Pediatrica-Città della Speranza, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Agatea
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Ricerca Pediatrica-Città della Speranza, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Crotti
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ragazzi
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Ricerca Pediatrica-Città della Speranza, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bedin
authors.affiliation: First Surgical Clinic Section, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy; Venetian Oncology Institute, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Urso
authors.affiliation: Venetian Oncology Institute, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mammi
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Ricerca Pediatrica-Città della Speranza, Padua, Italy; CNR-IENI, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Traldi
authors.affiliation: First Surgical Clinic Section, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy; Venetian Oncology Institute, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pucciarelli
authors.affiliation: First Surgical Clinic Section, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Donato
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nitti
authors.affiliation: First Surgical Clinic Section, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy; Istituto di Ricerca Pediatrica-Città della Speranza, Padua, Italy; Department of Nanomedicine, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston, TX. Electronic address: m.agostini@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agostini
mesh_terms: D011125:Adenomatous Polyposis Coli / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010449:Peptide Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D010455:Peptides / Q000097:blood*; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D010455:Peptides
keywords: Circulating plasma peptides; Colon cancer; Complement system C3f; Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization; Switch adenoma-carcinoma