Objective To observe the expression of cancer-testis antigen(CTA) catenin alpha 2 (CTNNA2) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on multi-omics data and investigate its potential clinical significance in HCC immunotherapy.
Methods The mRNA and protein levels of CTNNA2 were analyzed in 159 paired hepatitis B virus (HBV) related HCC and non-tumor liver tissues. Further, the immunoproteomics was used to detect the CTNNA2 antigen polypeptide binding with major histocompatibility complex (MHC-Ⅰ). The expression of CTNNA2 in 33 paired tumor and non-tumor liver tissues and 12 HCC cell lines was verified by reverse transcription polypolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The potential mechanism of CTNNA2 in HCC was also explored.
Results RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) quantitative transcriptomics and tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics data indicated CTNNA2 was significantly highly expressed in HCC tissues. RNA-Seq analysis suggested that CTNNA2 mRNA expressed in 80.5% HCC, 11.24 times higher than that in the non-tumor liver tissues(P < 0.001). TMT-based quantitative proteomics analysis showed that the CTNNA2 protein were expressed in 54.7% of HCC, 2.66 times higher than that in the non-tumor liver tissues. Immunoproteomics detected 30 kinds of CTNNA2 antigen polypeptides which could bind to MHC-Ⅰ(P < 0.001).
Conclusions Multi-omics analysis suggests that CTNNA2 is significantly upregulated in HCC and may be a new target of tumor vaccination.
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