ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mol. Biosci.
Sec. Molecular Diagnostics and Therapeutics
Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Reveals Potential serum diagnostic markers for colorectal adenoma
Provisionally accepted
Chengli Yu1
Xin Huang2Yating Cao2Qiuxia Yang3Ting Liu3Jingjie Zhou3Juping You3
Ye Zhang4Ailing Yin2*Haibing Hua3*- 1Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Functional Substances of Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
- 2Nanjing Hospital of Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
- 3The Affiliated Jiangyin Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangyin, China
- 4State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, China
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death, and most CRCs arise from colorectal adenomas. Early detection and removal of precancerous lesions during the adenoma-carcinoma sequence can significantly reduce CRC risk. However, current clinical practice lacks rapid, noninvasive screening tools for reliable adenoma detection. This study aimed to identify novel diagnostic biomarkers for colorectal adenomas through comparative proteomic analysis of serum samples from patients with inflammatory polyps (non-neoplastic), adenomas, and healthy controls. In two independent cohorts, we identified two candidate biomarkers, apolipoprotein A4 (APOA4) and filamin A (FLNA), through a multi-step selection process involving ANOVA p-value screening, squares discriminant analysis (sPLS-DA), and LASSO regression analysis. These candidates were subsequently validated in a third cohort (Cohort 3) using ELISA. The ELISA results for APOA4 were discordant with the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) findings. In contrast, FLNA levels measured by ELISA showed a progressive decrease from healthy controls to patients with inflammatory polyps and further to those with adenomas. We propose FLNA as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of colorectal adenomas. The areas under the ROC curves exceeded 0.7 for both key clinical comparisons: 0.810 for adenoma versus healthy controls, and 0.734 for adenoma versus inflammatory polyps. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the serum proteome in colorectal adenoma. It also offers insights into the potential biomarkers for clinical diagnosis of colorectal adenoma.
Keywords: colorectal adenomas, Inflammatory polyps, Serum, biomarker, FLNA
Received: 14 May 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Huang, Cao, Yang, Liu, Zhou, You, Zhang, Yin and Hua. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ailing Yin, yal120_120@126.com
Haibing Hua, jyzy3288@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.