title: Towards Tyrosine Metabolism in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Instrument, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai 201318, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Guangyong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Xianfu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D000077277:Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma; D006801:Humans; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D014443:Tyrosine / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D014443:Tyrosine
keywords: ESCC; LC-MS/MS; diagnostic biomarker; metabolomics; prediction model; tyrosine metabolism