G-protein coupled receptor-associated sorting protein 1 (GASP-1), a ubiquitous tumor marker

Using an innovative “2-D high performance liquid electrophoresis” (2-D HPLE) technology we identified that a specific fragment of G-protein coupled receptor-associated sorting protein 1 (GASP-1) was present in the sera of breast cancer patients and was over-expressed in early and late stage breast tumors (Tuszynski, G.P. et al., 2011). In this study we further investigated the significance of GASP-1 as a tumor marker by investigating the expression GASP-1 in different kinds of tumors as well as in the sera of patients with various cancers. Over expression of GASP-1 was detected in brain, pancreatic, and breast cancers as compared to their respective normal tissues as assessed by immunohistochemical staining of tissue arrays using a “peptide specific” GASP-1 antibody. We found that across these cancers, GASP-1 was expressed approximately 10 fold more in the cancer as compared to normal tissue. The increase in GASP-1 expression was also seen in hyperplastic and inflammatory lesions of breast and pancreatic cancers as compared to normal tissue. GASP-1 was primarily expressed in the tumor epithelium of the epithelial-derived cancers and in the transformed glial cells of the brain tumors. Using a sensitive “competitive ELISA” for GASP-1, we found that sera from patients with brain, liver, breast and lung cancers expressed 4–7 fold more GASP-1 peptide than sera from normal healthy individuals. These studies identify GASP-1 as a potential new serum and tumor biomarker for several cancers and suggest that GASP-1 may be a novel target for development of cancer therapeutics.