Protein-Based Biomaterial Marker in Metabolic Syndrome and Colorectal Cancer: A Preliminary Clinical Study of Betatrophin Expression in Javanese Ethnic

The presence of specific and unique chemical structure of a protein with their bioavailability properties provide a hallmark of the essential contribution of the biomaterials. Protein-based biomaterials become a novel trend in the biomedical field, particularly on clinical management and biomarker development. Blinding proteins and other materials in an advanced technological approach is crucial to generating protein-based biomaterials for biomedical. Recently, liver-derived protein, betatrophin/lipasin/ANGPTL-8 showed a potential property as the future biomaterial marker for early detection of gastrointestinal cancer related metabolic syndrome. The betatrophin expression is significantly correlated with cancer incidence and lipid metabolism disorder in a subject with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance. This clinical study aimed to develop betatrophin as the potential protein-based biomaterial marker in colorectal cancer (CRC) and metabolic syndrome, especially among Indonesian subjects. Our preliminary study focuses on Java ethnic as the dominant population with a higher incidence of CRC. The general anthropometric data were collected from CRC patients with different stages and metastasis status. The expression of betatrophin and metastasis related genes were quantified by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Interestingly, the basic profile of betatrophin and genes linked to cancer metastasis showed significant expression in our baseline data. Betatrophin/lipasin/ANGPTL-8 activity correlated to another gene that involved in the progression of cell migration and malignant cell invasion. Thus, we suggested that the alteration of betatrophin and its related genes expression may associate with the progression of CRC incidence in a subject with onset metabolic syndrome. Betatrophin could be proposed as the novel protein-based biomaterial marker in an individual with early stages of colorectal cancer. Therefore, the future expanded clinical study is necessary to well establish the biomaterial property of this liver protein in CRC diagnosis and prognosis.