Serial Analysis of Gene Expression Reveals Promising Therapeutic Targets for Liver Fluke-associated Cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) continues to be a serious health problem and is the most common fatalcancer in northeastern Thailand. Comprehensive gene expression analysis was here used to identify possibletherapeutic targets for CCA treatment. We assessed liver fluke-associated CCA tissue using serial analysis ofgene expression (SAGE) and compared the data to normal liver tissue as a part of the Cancer Genome AnatomyProject (CGAP). The analysis identified 509 differentially expressed genes. Of 142 up-regulated examples, weselected candidates including TMSB10, GAL3, VDR, CYPA and CD147 for further validation in CCA tissues byimmunohistochemistry. VDR, CYPA and CD147 were confirmed to be consistently overexpressed in the samplestested. The therapeutic and diagnostic potential of these genes warrants further investigation.