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Exploring the potential of mucin 13 (MUC13) as a biomarker for carcinomas and other diseases

  • Panagiota S. Filippou , Annie H. Ren , Dimitrios Korbakis , Lampros Dimitrakopoulos , Antoninus Soosaipillai , Vivian Barak , Shahar Frenkel , Jacob Pe’er , Michal Lotem , Sharon Merims , Rafael Molina , Ivan Blasutig ORCID logo , Dimitrios P. Bogdanos and Eleftherios P. Diamandis EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: May 16, 2018
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 56 Issue 11

Abstract

Background:

Mucin 13 (MUC13) is a cell surface glycoprotein aberrantly expressed in a variety of epithelial carcinomas. Thus far, the role of MUC13 in various diseases remains elusive. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the potential of MUC13 as a serum biomarker in a variety of carcinomas and other conditions.

Methods:

We developed a recombinant MUC13 protein, mouse monoclonal antibodies and enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) for MUC13. We used this assay to measure MUC13 levels in the supernatants of cancer cell lines and a large cohort of serum samples from healthy and diseased individuals.

Results:

MUC13 is secreted from cancer cell lines, with highest levels found in ovarian cancer cell lines. MUC13 levels in human sera were significantly increased in patients with renal failure and 20%–30% of patients with ovarian, liver, lung and other cancers. MUC13 was also elevated in 70% of patients with active cutaneous melanoma, but not uveal melanoma. Furthermore, we identified significant MUC13 elevations in the serum of patients with vasculitis (ANCA-positive) autoantibodies, but not in those with inflammatory bowel disease.

Conclusions:

Serum MUC13 is frequently elevated not only in a variety of malignant cases but also in some benign pathologies, thus appearing to be a non-specific disease biomarker. Nonetheless, serum MUC13 is clearly highly elevated in some carcinoma patients, and its relationship with tumor progression in this context warrant further research. Future studies that examine the correlation between serum MUC13 levels to stage of cancer could elucidate prognostic potential.

Keywords: autoimmune diseases; cancer cell lines; immunoassays; malignancies; MUC13; renal failure
Corresponding author: Eleftherios P. Diamandis, PhD, MD, Mount Sinai Hospital, Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Ctr., 60 Murray St [Box 32], Flr 6 – Rm L6-201, Toronto, ON, M5T 3L9, Canada; Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada; and Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, Phone: +416-586-8443, Fax: +416-619-5521

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Davor Brinc for fruitful discussions and for determining the analytical parameters of the MUC13 ELISA.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This study was funded by the principal investigator’s research fund from Mount Sinai Hospital.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Received: 2018-02-06
Accepted: 2018-04-10
Published Online: 2018-05-16
Published in Print: 2018-10-25

©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2018-0139
Keywords for this article
autoimmune diseases; cancer cell lines; immunoassays; malignancies; MUC13; renal failure

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. New biomarkers and traditional cardiovascular risk scores: any crystal ball for current effective advice and future exact prediction?
  4. Reviews
  5. Laboratory sample stability. Is it possible to define a consensus stability function? An example of five blood magnitudes
  6. Updated review of postmortem biochemical exploration of hypothermia with a presentation of standard strategy of sampling and analyses
  7. Long non-coding RNA-mediated regulation of signaling pathways in gastric cancer
  8. Opinion Paper
  9. Long story short: an introduction to the short-term and longterm Six Sigma quality and its importance in laboratory medicine for the management of extra-analytical processes
  10. EFLM Paper
  11. The European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine syllabus for postgraduate education and training for Specialists in Laboratory Medicine: version 5 – 2018
  12. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  13. Early availability of laboratory results increases same day ward discharge rates
  14. Evaluation of the clinical implementation of a large-scale online e-learning program on venous blood specimen collection guideline practices
  15. Improved prospective risk analysis for clinical laboratories compensated for the throughput in processes
  16. National surveys on internal quality control for blood gas analysis and related electrolytes in clinical laboratories of China
  17. Clinical validation of S100B in the management of a mild traumatic brain injury: issues from an interventional cohort of 1449 adult patients
  18. A quantitative LC-MS/MS method for insulin-like growth factor 1 in human plasma
  19. Development and validation of a mass spectrometry-based assay for quantification of insulin-like factor 3 in human serum
  20. Anti-ganglioside antibodies: experience from the Italian Association of Neuroimmunology external quality assessment scheme
  21. Reference Values and Biological Variations
  22. Improving IBD diagnosis and monitoring by understanding preanalytical, analytical and biological fecal calprotectin variability
  23. Establishing normal values of total testosterone in adult healthy men by the use of four immunometric methods and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
  24. Cancer Diagnostics
  25. Exploring the potential of mucin 13 (MUC13) as a biomarker for carcinomas and other diseases
  26. Cardiovascular Diseases
  27. Prognostic implications of detectable cardiac troponin I below the 99th percentile in patients admitted to an emergency department without acute coronary syndrome
  28. Osteocalcin value to identify subclinical atherosclerosis over atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score in middle-aged and elderly Chinese asymptomatic men
  29. Infectious Diseases
  30. Comparison of four methods of establishing control limits for monitoring quality controls in infectious disease serology testing
  31. Letter to the Editor
  32. Letter to the Editor relative to Clin Chem Lab Med 2018;56(3):360–372
  33. Update in diagnosis and management of primary aldosteronism: reply to a Letter to the Editor
  34. Can calculated total nitrogen replace Kjeldahl total nitrogen measurements in 24-h urine samples?
  35. Analytical performance of the single well titer function of NOVA View®: good enough to omit ANA IIF titer analysis?
  36. Assessment of Architect cSystems Abbott® for the colorimetric measurement of lithium in urines and dyalisates
  37. β-Trace protein in hemodialysis – comparison of different therapy modalities and high flux dialyzers
  38. Orbitrap™ high-resolution mass spectrometry for the identification of amoxicillin crystalluria
  39. High fluorescence cell count in ascitic body fluids for carcinomatosis screening
  40. The International Society for Enzymology: a glorious history, a golden legacy
  41. Congress Abstracts
  42. 10th National Congress of the Portuguese Society of Clinical Chemistry, Genetics and Laboratory Medicine
  43. 5th EFLM-UEMS European Joint Congress in Laboratory Medicine
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