Biomarkers for proteomics-based diagnosis of thyroid papillary carcinoma metastasis

Thyroid cancer has become the solid tumor with the most rapidly increasing incidence. In this study, patients who underwent ultrasound examination and surgical treatment at the Run Run Shaw Hospital Affiliated to the Medical College of Zhejiang University from January 2019 to June 2020 were enrolled. Preoperative ultrasound evaluation and postoperative pathological confirmation were used to partition cases into papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) high-risk (C1), PTC low-risk (C2), and control (N) groups with normal thyroid tissue adjacent to the cancer. Proteomic and phosphoproteomic assays were performed on PTC tissues. The C1/N and C2/N differential proteins were significantly upregulated and the functional areas were concentrated in amino-acid binding, phosphate-compound binding, and serine peptidase activity. The significantly upregulated C1/C2 differential proteins were NADH dehydrogenase, ATP convertase, oxidoreductase activities, and iron ion channels. Based on the differential multiples, significance, and metabolic pathways of the differentially expressed proteins, eight potential biomarkers related to the diagnosis of thyroid papillary carcinoma metastasis were revealed., including phosphorylated myosin 10, phosphorylated proline alanine protein kinase, leucine tRNA ligase , 2-oxoisovate dehydrogenase, succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase ADP/ATP translocase, malonyl COA decarboxylase, fibrin. We confirm that proteomics and phosphoproteomics can be used as effective methods for screening the metastasis of PTC.