Prostasin, A Potential Tumor Marker in Ovarian Cancer- A Pilot Study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:Ovarian cancer is generally diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease; therefore, poor prognoses are typical. The development of tumor markers is thus of utmost importance. Prostasin is a protease that in normal tissues is highly expressed only in the prostate gland and seminal fluid. A previous study showed that prostasin is highly overexpressed in ovarian cancer cell lines. This study sought to evaluate the expression of prostasin in ovarian cancer.METHODS:Fresh tumor samples of ovarian epithelial cancer (n: 12) were analyzed for expression of prostasin mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) by conventional and real time quantitative PCR (polymerase chain reaction). As a standard control, a normal prostate sample was analyzed.RESULTS:Using conventional PCR, prostasin was detected in all but one sample. Using quantitative PCR, prostasin was over-expressed in all but one of the samples as compared to the control (prostate).CONCLUSIONS:These findings indicate that prostasin is overexpressed in many epithelial ovarian cancers. Further studies of prostasin as a potential biomarker for this disease are warranted.

Prostasin: An Epithelial Sodium Channel Regulator

“…Unlike bladder and colon cancer, an upregulation of prostasin has been reported in ovarian carcinoma [ 64 , 65 ]. The potential use of prostasin as a marker of ovarian cancer has been suggested in a study by Mok et al [ 64 ] that demonstrated 120- to 410-fold higher prostasin mRNA expression in ovarian cancer cell lines than normal ovarian cell lines.…”

“…Prostasin is expressed mainly in mammalian epithelial tissues of prostate, kidney, lung, and colon as a 40 kDa glycosylphosphatidylinositol- (GPI-) anchored protein [ 1 – 3 ]. Although the biological and physiological roles of prostasin are not known at present, the high levels of prostasin in the prostate and seminal fluid (over 20-fold higher than any other tissue examined) suggest that it may play an important physiological role in these locations [ 10 ]. As evidenced from various studies, prostasin is present at low levels in other tissues, such as the lung, kidney, salivary glands, colon, liver, and bronchi, indicating that it may have roles in other biological processes as well [ 1 ].…”

Early Detection Biomarkers for Ovarian Cancer

“…A significant decline in postoperative serum levels of PRSS8 was observed in a majority of cases. Similarly, Costa et al demonstrated significantly higher over-expression of prostasin mRNA in fresh-frozen ovarian cancer tissues than in normal controls [92]. Previous studies to determine the function of Zinc-finger protein 217 (ZNF217) using Affymetrix Gene Chip analysis in the ovarian cancer cell line, HO-8910, with HG-U133 plus 2.0 arrays demonstrated that silencing of the ZNF217 gene resulted in downregulation (approximately 8-fold) of 164 genes compared to normal cells.…”

Biomarkers towards Ovarian Cancer Diagnostics: Present and Future Prospects

“…Costa et al also confirmed the increased level of associated mRNA through Real-Time PCR. Significantly higher level of prostasin was detected in the stage II 51 . Mok et al obtained a sensitivity of 64.9% for CA-125 and 51.4% for prostasin when specificity was kept at 94% for prostasin.…”