ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Metabolic “footprints” of the circulating cancer mucins: CA125 in the high-grade ovarian cancer

Chagovets VV1, Vasil'ev VG2, Iurova MV1,3, Khabas GN1, Pavlovich SV1,3, Starodubtseva NL1, Mayboroda OA4,5
About authors

1 Kulakov National Medical Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology, Moscow, Russia

2 Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russia

3 Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia

4 Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

5 Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia

Correspondence should be addressed: Vitaly V. Chagovets
Akademika Oparina, 4, Moscow, 117997, Russia; moc.liamg@stevogahcvv

About paper

Funding: the study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project #20-65-46014).

Author contribution: Chagovets VV — study planning, sample preparation, discussion of NMR data processing, manuscript authoring and editing; Vasil'ev VG — sample preparation, NMR analysis; Iurova MV, Khabas GN — collection and characterization of clinical samples, discussion of the results; Pavlovich SV — study research, discussion of the results; Starodubtseva NL — study planning, clinical data processing; Mayboroda OA — study planning and management, manuscript authoring, NMR data processing.

Compliance with ethical standards: the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the V.I. Kulakov National Medical Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology (Minutes #10 of December 05, 2019), conducted in accordance with federal laws of the Russian Federation (#152, 323 etc.) and the Declaration of Helsinki of 1964 with all subsequent extensions and amendments regulating scientific research involving biomaterials obtained from human beings.

Received: 2021-12-01 Accepted: 2021-12-16 Published online: 2021-12-29
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Mucins are large glycoproteins characterized by the abundant O-linked oligosaccharides (O-glycans) clustered on a protein backbone. Most of the circulating mucins are rapidly cleared by glycan-recognizing hepatic clearance receptors in the liver. Those mucins that remain in the bloodstream are most commonly used as markers in clinical diagnostics. One of such circulating mucins is MUC16; a peptide epitope of which is known as CA125 antigen — a marker for ovarian cancer. Here, using a targeted 1H-NMR profiling of plasma we are exploring a link between the measured CA125 values and the systemic metabolism of the patients within a group with confirmed high-grade ovarian cancer. The study allowed identifying statistically significant associations between the measured values of CA125 epitope and the plasma concentrations of glucose, glutamine, alanine, betaine and serine. The significance of the identified associations for the listed compounds is below 0.01. This, in turn, enables us to hypothesize about a possibility of including the metabolic measures into a composite score of the ovarian cancer based on the CA125 epitope of MUC16.

Keywords: ovarian cancer, metabolomics, NMR, circulating mucins, CA125

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