The structure, metabolism and function of the carcinoembryonic antigen gene family

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) can increase serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels. We thus aimed to evaluate the impact of CKD on CEA prognostic accuracy in colorectal cancer.

Altogether, 429 patients who underwent curative resection for stages I–III colorectal adenocarcinoma were grouped according to postoperative CEA levels and history of CKD.

Three-year disease-free survival (DFS) was higher in patients with normal postoperative CEA (group A, 83.4%) than in those with elevated postoperative CEA (group B, 64.3%) (p < 0.001). CKD patients had higher postoperative CEA levels than non-CKD patients (odds ratio 3.27, 95% confidence interval 1.78–5.99, p < 0.001). In multivariable analysis, postoperative CEA level was an independent prognostic factor for DFS in non-CKD, but not CKD, patients.

CKD can increase postoperative CEA levels in colorectal cancer patients. Elevated postoperative CEA levels were associated with shorter DFS in non-CKD, but not CKD, patients.

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is one of the biomarkers most commonly used to determine tumor activity. In this work, a Surface Plasmon Resonance imaging (SPRi) immunosensor was developed. The immunosensor consists of a cysteamine linker attached to a gold chip and mouse monoclonal anti-CEA antibody bonded by the “EDC/NHS protocol”. The formation of successive immunosensor layers was confirmed by AFM measurements. The concentration of the antibody was optimized. The linear response range of the developed immunosensor is between 0.40 and 20 ng mL⁻¹, and it is suitable for CEA measurement in both blood cancer patients and healthy individuals. Only 3 μL of serum or plasma sample is required, and no preconcentration is used. The method has a precision of 2–16%, a recovery of 101–104% depending on CEA concentration, a detection limit of 0.12 ng mL⁻¹ and a quantification limit of 0.40 ng mL⁻¹. The method is selective (with respect to albumin, leptin, interleukin 6, metalloproteinase-1, metallopeptidase inhibitor 1 and CA 125/MUC16) and it was validated by comparison with the standard electrochemiluminescence method on a series of colorectal cancer blood samples.

Leukoaraiosis refers to lesions of high signal intensities in periventricular and subcortical white matter, which result from chronic microvascular ischemic damage of the brain. Emerging evidence suggests that serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is elevated in cardiometabolic diseases, which are closely related with microangiopathy. Thus, we hypothesized that serum CEA levels could be associated with leukoaraiosis and aimed to examine this association among middle-aged and older adults.

This cross-sectional study included 2164 Korean adults aged ≥ 45 years who underwent a health examination program at a single hospital between 2010 and 2015. Serum CEA levels were quantified by chemiluminescence immunoassay and categorized as quartiles: Q1: ≤ 1.1, Q2: 1.2–1.6, Q2: 1.7–2.4, and Q4: ≥ 2.5 μg/L. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for leukoaraiosis based on brain MRI scans were calculated across serum CEA quartiles using multiple logistic regression analysis after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and leukocyte count.

The overall prevalence of leukoaraiosis was 5.4% and increased with serum CEA quartiles: 3.3% for Q1, 5.0% for Q2, 5.8% for Q3, and 7.6% for Q4 (P < 0.001). The OR (95% CI) of the highest CEA quartile, compared to the lowest quartile, for leukoaraiosis was 2.164 (1.169–4.006) after adjusting for confounding variables.

Serum CEA levels were positively and independently associated with leukoaraiosis. Our findings indicate that serum CEA level might be useful additional measure in assessing leukoaraiosis in clinical settings.

Differential microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles in plasma or serum were identified, providing foundation for studying their potentially diagnostic role in colorectal cancer (CRC).

We performed S-poly(T) Plus PCR assay to select and validate differentially expressed plasma miRNAs from a sample set including 101 CRC patients, 20 patients with colorectal noncancerous polyps (NCP), and 134 healthy controls. And bioinformatics methods was used to integrated predicted or validated targets of the differentially dysregulated miRNAs and analyzed their overrepresented pathways.

After the two-phase selection and validation process, we identified a miRNA panel (miR-144-3p, miR-425-5p, and miR-1260b) with high diagnostic efficiency for CRC; the panel distinguished CRC patients from controls with 93.8% sensitivity and 91.3% specificity. Results indicated that the dysregulated miRNAs in CRC were functionally involved in several key cancer-related pathways, such as axonal guidance, PI3K, and calcium signaling pathways.

Our study demonstrated that a plasma 3-miRNA panel may serve as a novel noninvasive biomarker to diagnose CRC. This plasma 3-miRNA panel may be related to CRC development. However, further studies are needed to highlight its theoretical strengths.