Protein expression analysis of leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein in serum as a new diagnostic marker of pancreatic cancer focusing on the posttranslational modification

• Project/Area Number: 26870002
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Digestive surgery; Tumor diagnostics
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Kakisaka Tatsuhiko 北海道大学, 医学研究院, 客員研究員 (40583092)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
• Keywords: 膵癌 / バイオマーカー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The prognosis of pancreatic cancer (PC) is extremely poor and it is difficult to diagnose PC in early stage. We analyzed leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein (LRG) in serum as a new diagnostic marker of PC. We used the serum of PC patients (n=68) and healthy volunteer (n=10) and analyzed the serum concentration of LRG by ELISA. We found that LRG levels of PC patients in all stages were significantly up-regulated compared with those of healthy volunteers. Moreover, LRG concentrations were highly expressed in 22 of 25 PC patients whose serum levels of CA19-9 were low. LRG is a candidate of new diagnostic marker of PC. We plan to isolate LRG from serum and analyze differentially expressed glycans of LRG in future research.