ALPPL2 Is a Potential Diagnostic Biomarker for Pancreatic Cancer-Derived Extracellular Vesicles

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive malignancy that often goes undiagnosed in the early stages. Non-invasive, early, and accurate diagnosis is therefore undoubtedly the “holy grail” of pancreatic cancer research. However, despite extensive research efforts, there is no definitive biomarker for this cancer. Previously, we identified alkaline phosphatase placental-like 2 (ALPPL2) as a diagnostic biomarker for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and developed a 2′-fluoro modified RNA aptamer toward it. In this study, we show that ALPPL2 is present in pancreatic cancer extracellular vesicles (EVs) and therefore has potential application in liquid biopsy-based diagnostic strategies. We also developed ALPPL2 direct and sandwich aptamer-linked immobilized sorbent assay (ALISA) for EVs, which could sensitively and specifically detect the protein. We believe that our ALISA format may have a potential diagnostic utility in screening pancreatic-cancer-derived EVs.