Serum SYPL1 is a promising diagnostic biomarker for colorectal cancer

Clin Chim Acta. 2020 Oct:509:36-42. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2020.05.048. Epub 2020 Jun 2.

Abstract

Background: At present, the overall sensitivity and specificity of blood biomarkers are insufficient for a diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC).

Methods: We analyzed the serum synaptophysin like 1 (sSYPL1) in controls, adenoma patients, CRC patients, pre- and postoperative CRC patients by ELISA.

Results: The upregulation of SYPL1 was confirmed in CRC tissues at both mRNA and protein levels. Consistently, sSYPL1 was significantly higher in CRC patients than in either controls (t = 14.50, P < 0.0001) or adenoma patients (t = 10.56, P < 0.0001) and was associated with lymph node invasion (χ2 = 4.27, P = 0.039). ROC curves showed that sSYPL1 performed superbly in distinguishing CRC patients from controls (AUC: 0.9481; sensitivity: 86.09%, specificity: 91.01%) and adenoma (AUC: 0.8631; sensitivity: 98.68%, specificity: 78.08%). This performance was much better than that of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9). Even for patients with low CEA levels (under 5 ng/mL), SYPL1 maintained the same high performance for identification of CRC. Furthermore, sSYPL1 levels declined significantly after radical surgery (t = 5.903, P < 0.0001).

Conclusion: sSYPL1 might be an outstanding marker for CRC diagnosis, especially for patients with low CEA levels.

Keywords: Biomarker; Colorectal cancer; SYPL1; Serum.

MeSH terms

  • Adenoma* / diagnosis
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics
  • CA-19-9 Antigen
  • Carcinoembryonic Antigen
  • Colonic Neoplasms*
  • Colorectal Neoplasms* / diagnosis
  • Humans
  • Synaptophysin* / blood

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • CA-19-9 Antigen
  • Carcinoembryonic Antigen
  • Synaptophysin
  • SYPL1 protein, human