Discovering potential serological biomarker for chronic Hepatitis B Virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma in Chinese population by MAL-associated serum glycoproteomics analysis

The accuracy of current biomarkers for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), especially chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV)-related HCC, is limited. Recent progress in glycoproteomics has provided a novel platform for screening novel serological biomarkers of HCC. In this study, lectin affinity chromatography by Maackia amurensis lectin (MAL) and iTRAQ combined with mass spectrometric analysis were performed to enrich and identify the glycoprotein fractions in serum samples from HBV-related HCC patients and from healthy controls. Seventeen differential MAL-associated glycoproteins were identified. Among them, Galectin 3 binding protein (Gal-3BP) was selected for further evaluated by ELISA analysis and showed a high diagnostic potential of HBV-related HCC, with the AUC of 0.898 and a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 80.00%, 93.75% and 86.88%, respectively. Moreover, we constructed a predictive model through the combined use of serum Gal-3BP and Alpha Fetoprotein (AFP), which improved the sensitivity (from 87.5% to 95%), specificity (from 93.75% to 95%) and accuracy (from 90.63% to 95%) of diagnosing early HCC. These data suggested serum Gal-3BP level is a promising biomarker to identify HBV-related HCC and the combined use of serum Gal-3BP and AFP improves the diagnostic potential of HBV-HCC compared with AFP alone in current clinical practice.