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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1455095
This article is part of the Research Topic Cancer Biomarkers: Molecular Insights into Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Risk Prediction View all 14 articles
Plasma IgG and IgM autoantibodies to COPT1 as potential biomarkers for detection of non-small cell lung cancer
Provisionally accepted
Cao Xiaobin 1,2
Jing Li 1 Siyu Liu 1,2 Aichen Liu 1 Lulu Zhang 1
Fengqi Chen 1
Yutong Li 1,2 Hanke Ma 1 Wenke Sun 1
Songyun Ouyang 1
Liping Dai 1
Jingjing Liu 1*- 1 Other, Zhengzhou, China
- 2 BGI College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China, Zhengzhou, China
Background: Early diagnosis of lung cancer is crucial for improving patient outcomes. Autoantibodies against tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) found in the plasma can serve as biomarkers for lung cancer detection. Copper transporter 1 (COPT1) is abnormally expressed in several cancers including lung cancer. The purpose of this study is to explore the significance of anti-COPT1 autoantibodies in the clinical diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: The expression level of COPT1 in NSCLC and normal tissues was analyzed based on TCGA and the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. Through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the expression levels of anti-COPT1 autoantibodies in plasma samples from normal controls (NC), patients with benign pulmonary nodules (BPN), and patients with NSCLC were detected in the discovery (89 NC and 89 NSCLC) and verification (321 NC, 321 BPN and 321 NSCLC) groups. The ELISA results were verified by western blotting and indirect immunofluorescence experiments. Results: Based on HPA and TCGA databases, the mRNA and protein levels of COPT1 were higher in NSCLC tissues than in normal tissues. The levels of anti-COPT1-IgG and anti-COPT1-IgM autoantibodies were significantly higher in patients with NSCLC (P<0.05). Anti-COPT1-IgG and anti-COPT1-IgM could discriminate NSCLC from NC with area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.733 (95% CI: 0.694-0.771) and 0.679 (95% CI: 0.638-0.720), respectively. Additionally, the combination of anti-COPT1-IgG, anti-COPT1-IgM, and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) could enhance the efficacy of NSCLC diagnosis from BPN with increased AUC values. Conclusions: Our study indicated the potential significance of anti-COPT1-IgG and anti-COPT1-IgM autoantibodies as novel biomarkers for the detection of NSCLC. Furthermore, the combination of anti-COPT1-IgG and anti-COPT1-IgM improved the diagnostic value.
Keywords: ：COPT1, Autoantibody, Non-small cell lung cancer, biomarkers, IgG, IgM
Received: 26 Jun 2024; Accepted: 24 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xiaobin, Li, Liu, Liu, Zhang, Chen, Li, Ma, Sun, Ouyang, Dai and Liu. 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:
Jingjing Liu, Other, Zhengzhou, China
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