Antibody detection using tumor-associated antigen mini-array in immunodiagnosing human hepatocellular carcinoma

Background/Aims Previous studies have demonstrated that during transition from chronic liver disease to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), autoantibodies can appear which are not detected in the prior pre-malignant conditions. These antibody responses may be stimulated by cellular proteins involved in carcinogenesis. This study determines the prevalence of antibodies to a selected panel of eight tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) in sera from patients with chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and HCC, and considers the possibility and usefulness of antibodies to such a panel of TAAs in differentiating between these conditions. The panel of eight TAAs includes Imp1, p62, Koc, p53, c-myc, cyclin B1, survivin and p16 full-length recombinant proteins. Methods Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect antibodies against eight selected TAAs in 30 sera from chronic hepatitis, 30 from liver cirrhosis, and 142 from HCC. Positive results were also confirmed by slot blot, Western blotting and immunoprecipitation assay. Results Antibody frequency to any individual TAA in HCC varied from 9.9% to 21.8%. With the successive addition of TAAs to a final total of eight antigens, there was a stepwise increase of positive antibody reactions reaching a frequency of 59.8% with whole cohort of HCC patients. This was significantly higher than the frequency of antibodies in chronic hepatitis (20%), liver cirrhosis (30%) and normal individuals (12.2%). Conclusions This study demonstrates that malignant transition to HCC is associated with increased autoantibody responses to certain cellular proteins which might have a role in tumorigenesis, and shows that a mini-array of eight TAAs enhanced antibody detection for diagnosis of HCC. More studies in patients with HCC and precursor conditions such as chronic hepatitis, alcoholic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis using enlarged TAA mini-array panels might further improve the sensitivity and specificity of this mode of cancer immunodiagnosis. Its additional usefulness might be in the early detection of cancer in some patients with predisposing conditions.