Lipidomics Identified Lysophosphatidylcholine and Phosphatidylethanolamine as Novel Biomarkers for Diagnosis of Laryngeal Cancer

Abstract

Background: Laryngeal cancer (LaC) remains one of the most common tumors of the respiratory tract with higher incidence in men than in women. The larynx is a small but vital organ on the neck. The dysfunction of the larynx can cause serious health problems such as hoarseness, respiratory distress, and dysphonia. Lipid has been recognized as a crucial role in tumorigenesis. However, the lipid biomarkers are lacking and the lipid molecular pathogenesis of LaC has remained obscure to date. Methods: To identify new LaC-related lipid biomarkers used for the diagnosis or early diagnosis of LaC and to uncover their molecular characteristics, we conducted serum lipidomics study from LaC patients (n = 29) and normal controls (NC) (n = 36) using nontargeted lipidomics profiling based on ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)/Q-TOF 5600 Plus mass spectrometry. Multivariate and univariate statistics analyses were used to discriminate LaC patients from NC. Findings: As expected, a lipid panel including LPC (16:0) and PE (18:0p_20:4) was found to distinguish the LaC patients from healthy individuals with very high diagnosis performance (area under the curve (AUC) = 1.000, sensitivity = 1.000, and specificity = 1.000). In addition, the levels of Cer, CerG1, SM, PC, PC-O, PE, PI, PS, and ChE in the LaC group significantly increased as compared with the NC group. However, the levels of LPC, LPC-O, LPE, LPE-p, and DG in the LaC group significantly deceased when the one was compared with the NC group. Among significantly changed lipid species, lysophospholipids containing a palmitoyl chain or an arachidonic acid acyl chain remarkably decreased and phospholipids including a palmitoyl chain or an arachidonic acid acyl chain increased in the LaC patients. Interpretation: Our results not only indicate that lipidomics is powerful tool to explore abnormal lipid metabolism for the laC, but suggest that lysophospholipids and phospholipids may serve as potential biomarkers for diagnosis of laC. Funding Statement: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants (No. 11772087), and the Joint Fund Project of Collaborative Innovation Center for Individualized Diagnosis and Treatment (dy2yhws201805). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University Institutional Ethics Review Board, and all participants provided written informed consent.