Evaluación de la correlación entre la expresión de MHLA-G en tumores y niveles de SHLA-G en plasma de pacientes con cáncer

Abstract

Cancer can be defined as the process of uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells in the body. According to the World Health Organization, cancer is considered a public health problem whose incidence and mortality have increased in recent years. Gastric cancer represents one of the most frequent causes of death in the world, being of a variable incidence in the different countries and regions of the planet.

The Human Leukocyte Antigen G, HLA-G, is a non- classical molecule of the major histocompatibility complex class I, whose expression was initially described in the trophoblastic cells during pregnancy, to protect the fetus. However, several studies have shown that this molecule is related to tumor development because it possesses immunosuppressive properties such as inhibition of natural killer (NK) cell-mediated cytotoxicity and efficacious activity of dendritic cells and T cells (CD8+ and CD4+), resulting in tumor proliferation and progression.

Therefore, this research intends to quantify sHLA-G in plasma by means of a sandwich ELISA test and compare it with the transcriptional expression of mHLA-G in tumor cells to determine if in these samples, the expression of HLA-G isoforms is related to clinicopathological factors and the response to treatment of patients evaluated and diagnosed from the National Institute of Cancerology located in Bogotá. It was demonstrated that the patients studied have a poor prognosis and low survival, since 82% (9 patients) of the patients are dead, and 63% (7 patients) of the patients were diagnosed in advanced stages (stage III and IV) and all of them already had metastases. However, the results obtained in the present study differ from the results of previous studies since the sample analyzed (n=11) was insufficient to resolve the clinical implications of HLA-G expression in gastrointestinal cancer. As evidence from other studies has shown that sHLA-G levels are higher in cancer patients than in patients with non-malignant diseases, it should be noted that the use of plasma/serum sHLA-G concentration as a biomarker for the diagnosis and management of this disease should be further explored.