Primary breast cancer biomarkers based on glycosylation and extracellular vesicles detected from human serum

Abstract

<p>Background <br></p><p>Breast cancer is a very common cancer that can be severe if not discovered early. The current tools to detect breast cancer need improvement. Cancer has a universal tendency to affect glycosylation. The glycosylation of circulating extracellular vesicle-associated glycoproteins, and mucins may offer targets for detection methods and have been only explored in a limited capacity. <br></p><p>Aim <br></p><p>Our aim was to develop an approach to detect the aberrant glycosylation of mucins and extracellular vesicle-associated glycoproteins from human sera using fluorescent nanoparticles, and preliminarily evaluate this approach for the differential diagnosis of breast cancer. <br></p><p>Methods and results <br></p><p>The assay involved immobilizing glycosylated antigens using monoclonal antibodies and then probing their glycosylation by using lectins and glycan-specific antibodies coated on Eu+3-doped nanoparticles. Detection of mucin 1 and mucin 16 glycosylation with wheat germ agglutinin, and detection of the extracellular vesicle-associated CD63 were found to have better diagnostic ability for localized breast cancer than the conventional assays for mucin 1 and mucin 16 based tumor markers when the receiver operating characteristics were compared. <br></p><p>Conclusions <br></p><p>These results indicate that successful differential diagnosis of primary breast cancer may be aided by detecting cancer-associated glycosylation of mucin 1 and mucin 16, and total concentration of CD63, in human serum.</p>