Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jan 31;18(1):117.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-018-4011-8.

Screening for immune-potentiating antigens from hepatocellular carcinoma patients after radiofrequency ablation by serum proteomic analysis

Shunli Shen  1 , Hong Peng  2 , Ye Wang  3 , Ming Xu  3   4 , Manxia Lin  3   4 , Xiaoyan Xie  3   4 , Baogang Peng  1 , Ming Kuang  5   6
Affiliations

Screening for immune-potentiating antigens from hepatocellular carcinoma patients after radiofrequency ablation by serum proteomic analysis

Shunli Shen et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) can not only effectively kill hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumour cells but also release tumour antigens that can provoke an immune response. However, there is no consensus regarding which antigens could constitutively be generated after RFA and could potentiate the immune response. The aim of this study was to identify these immune-potentiating antigens.

Methods: We performed two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and MALDI-TOF-MS/MS analyses on serum obtained before and after RFA from 5 HCC patients. Further validation for selected proteins was performed utilizing ELISA analysis on another 52 HCC patients. Disease-free survival (DFS) analysis according to the differential expression of the interested protein before and after RFA was performed.

Results: Twelve decreased and 6 increased proteins after RFA were identified by MS. Three proteins, including clusterin, Ficolin-3, and serum retinol binding protein-4, were further verified by ELISA on the 52 HCC patients. Only Ficolin-3 proved to be significantly changed after RFA. The 52 patients were divided into two groups according to the expression of Ficolin-3 before and after RFA. The 1-, 2- and 3-year DFS rates were 59.1%, 31.8%, and 22.7%, respectively, for patients in the low Ficolin-3 group (22 patients) and 73.3%, 60.0%, and 50.0%, respectively, for patients in the high Ficolin-3 group (30 patients) (P = 0.038).

Conclusions: In conclusion, Ficolin-3 was overexpressed in the serum of most HCC patients after RFA. Ficolin-3 might be a biomarker for RFA treatment efficacy and a potential target for HCC immunotherapy.

Keywords: Ficolin-3; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Immunotherapy; Proteomics; Radiofrequency ablation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was performed according to the guidelines of the Helsinki Declaration. It was registered and approved by the ethics committee at The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. All patients provided written informed consent before treatment.

Consent for publication

N/A.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Representative 2-DE serum protein profiles before and after RFA treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma patients. These differentially expressed protein spots (labelled as A1 to A18 and B2 to B14) were subsequently identified by MALDI-TOF MS/MS analyses
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Protein spots decreased after RFA
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Protein spots increased after RFA
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Ficolin-3, CLU and RBP4 levels in serum before and after radiofrequency (RFA) was compared in a validation set of 52 patients using ELISA. Results are expressed as the mean±SD. A P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Disease-free survival of HCC patients after RFA according to the expression level of Ficolin-3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bruix J, Sherman M. Management of hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology. 2005;42(5):1208–1236. doi: 10.1002/hep.20933. - DOI - PubMed
    1. El-Serag HB. Hepatocellular carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 2011;365(12):1118–1127. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1001683. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tiong L, Maddern GJ. Systematic review and meta-analysis of survival and disease recurrence after radiofrequency ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma. Br J Surg. 2011;98(9):1210–1224. doi: 10.1002/bjs.7669. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Waitz R, Solomon SB. Can local radiofrequency ablation of tumors generate systemic immunity against metastatic disease. Radiology. 2009;251(1):1–2. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2511082215. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wissniowski TT, Hänsler J, Neureiter D, Frieser M, Schaber S, Esslinger B, Voll R, Strobel D, Hahn EG, Schuppan D, Wissniowski TT, Hünsler J. Activation of tumor-specific T lymphocytes by radio-frequency ablation of the VX2 hepatoma in rabbits. Cancer Res. 2003;63(19):6496–6500. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms