Bioinformatic analysis of dysregulated proteins in prostate cancer patients reveals putative urinary biomarkers and key biological pathways.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancer types among men. The quantification of prostate-specific antigen used for PCa detection has revealed limited applicability. Thus, it is crucial to identify new minimally invasive biomarkers for PCa. It is believed that the integration of proteomics data from different studies is vital for identifying new biomarkers for PCa, but studies carried out in this regard have few converging results. Using a different approach, this study aimed to unveil molecular features consistently dysregulated in PCa and potential urinary biomarkers for PCa. The novelty of this analysis relies on the comparison of urinary and tissue proteomes from PCa patients and consequent exclusion of kidney and bladder cancer interference. The conducted bioinformatic analysis revealed molecular processes dysregulated in urine from PCa patients that mirror the alterations in prostate tumor tissue. To identify putative urinary biomarkers, proteins previously detected in kidney and bladder tissues were eliminated from the final list of potential urinary biomarkers for PCa. After a detailed analysis, MSMB, KLK3, ITIH4, ITIH2, HPX, GP2, APOA2 and AZU1 proteins stood out as candidate urinary biomarkers for PCa.