Talin-1; other than a potential marker for hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis

Abstract

Background and study aims

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Talin-1 was previously proposed as a potential novel biomarker for HCC diagnosis but with limited and inconsistent data. We aimed to study the possible role of talin-1 in diagnosis and prognostic stratification of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Patients and methods

Ninety-six patients were recruited and classified into three groups; 1) cirrhosis group: 40 patients with liver cirrhosis, 2) HCC group: 40 patients with HCC, 3) control group: 16 healthy volunteers with matched age and sex. Serum talin-1 level was detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results

The highest levels of talin-1 were observed among the HCC group followed by cirrhosis then control groups (p = 0.000). In the HCC group, a significant correlation was found between talin-1 and each of multifocal HCC (p = 0.013), portal vein invasion (p = 0.022) and presence of ascites (p = 0.001), while no significant correlation was detected with tumour foci size (p = 0.605). For HCC detection, talin-1 had AUC = 0.858, 100% sensitivity and 65% specificity, while AFP had AUC = 1.000, 100% sensitivity and specificity.

Conclusion

Talin-1 is a potential marker for diagnosis and prognostic assessment of HCC. Further studies are needed to investigate the ultimate diagnostic and prognostic utility of serum talin-1.

Introduction

The most serious liver malignancy is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) [1]. It is the sixth malignancy in the world and the third of deaths related to cancer [2], [3]. HCC development is associated with various factors such as HCV, HBV, alcohol, metabolic and cholestatic liver diseases [4]. Patients are often diagnosed at an advanced stage and show a poor prognosis [5] with limited treatment options [6]. Consequently, novel diagnostic methods are required for the early detection and effective treatment of HCC [7].

Alpha-foetoprotein (AFP) has been used as a diagnostic tumour marker for HCC. Previous studies reported that only about 33% to 65% of HCC patients had high serum AFP levels. Moreover, 15% to 58% of cirrhotic patients had non-specific increased levels of AFP [8]. Accordingly, there is a substantial necessity for new biomarkers for HCC diagnosis [9].

Talin-1 is a cytoplasmic macromolecular protein that is encoded by TLN1 gene in humans. It has been reported that talin-1 interact with multiple adhesion molecules (e.g. integrin and F-actin) to initiate the integrin/focal adhesion kinase (FAK) pathway [10], [11]. Consequently, integrins enhance cell-to-extracellular matrix interactions, thus transduce bidirectional signals and eventually regulate adhesion, apoptosis and tumour growth [12]. Altering the adhesion of tumour cells is the initial step of tumour cells invasion and metastasis [13]. Thus, talin-1 is accused in the cancer progression and metastasis through integrin-mediated signalling transduction pathway [14].

Talin-1 was studied in several malignancies such as colon [15], prostate [16] and oral squamous cell carcinoma [17]. In addition, it was investigated as a biomarker for the process of the carcinogenesis, invasion, metastasis and clinical diagnosis of HCC [12], [13], [18]. Such results have suggested that talin-1 is a potential diagnostic marker for HCC. However, it is still unknown whether talin-1 promoted HCC growth and metastasis, and the role of talin-1 in HCC progression remained unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the possible role of talin-1 in the diagnosis and prognostic stratification of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.