Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is known to be associated with protein alterations and extracellular fibrous deposition. We investigated the urinary proteomic profiles of HCC patients in this prospective cross sectional multicentre study. 195 patients were recruited from the UK (Coventry) and Germany (Hannover) between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 2019. Out of these, 57 were HCC patients with a background of liver cirrhosis (LC) and 138 were non-HCC controls; 72 patients with LC, 57 with non-cirrhotic liver disease and 9 with normal liver function. Analysis of the urine samples was performed by capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS). Peptide sequences were obtained and 31 specific peptide markers for HCC were identified and further integrated into a multivariate classification model. The peptide model demonstrated 79.5% sensitivity and 85.1% specificity (95% CI: 0.81-0.93, p < 0.0001) for HCC and 4.1-fold increased risk of death (95% CI: 1.7-9.8, p = 0.0005). Proteases potentially involved in HCC progression were mapped to the N- and C-terminal sequence motifs of the CE-MS peptide markers. In silico protease prediction revealed that kallikrein-6 (KLK6) elicits increased activity, whilst Meprin A subunit α (MEP1A) has reduced activity in HCC compared to the controls. Tissue expression of KLK6 and MEP1A was subsequently verified by immunohistochemistry.
Keywords: capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry; diagnosis; hepatocellular carcinoma; prognosis; urinary peptides.