METABOLIC “FOOTPRINTS” OF THE CIRCULATING CANCER MUCINS: CA125 IN THE HIGH-GRADE OVARIAN CANCER [МЕТАБОЛОМНАЯ ПОДПИСЬ СВОБОДНЫХ МУЦИНОВ ПРИ ОНКОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ЗАБОЛЕВАНИЯХ: СА125 И РАК ЯИЧНИКОВ ВЫСОКОЙ СТЕПЕНИ ЗЛОКАЧЕСТВЕННОСТИ]

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. © 2021 Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University. All rights reserved.