Analysis of urinary kallikrein-related peptidase 13 for monitoring bladder cancer

Abstract

Background

Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the 10 most common types of cancer worldwide, with approximately 550,000 new cases each year. Early detection and appropriate diagnosis are important factors in successful treatment of the disease.

Material and methods

We used specific fluorogenic substrate for the quantitative determination of urine kallikrein 13 (KLK13) activity in healthy (n = 15) and BC (n = 54) patients. The proteolytic activity in individual urine samples was determined by fluorescence measurements. Then, immunoenzymatic analyses (ELISA, Western blot) were performed to confirm the presence of KLK13 in the tested samples.

Results

Urine samples from patients with G2 and G3 grade BC contained proteolytically active KLK13, as confirmed by kinetic analysis and immunochemical detection. KLK13 was not detected in the urine of patients with G1 grade BC.

Discussion

Previous clinical study reveals the KLK13 significance for BC prognosis as increased KLK13 expression was highlighted in bladder tumours compared to normal adjacent tissues. Our findings correlate to the report. KLK13 activity was confirmed in BC patients with G2 and G3 stage of disease development.

Conclusions

Using specific chromogenic/fluorogenic peptides could be useful for the non-invasive disease monitoring of BC progress.

Keywords:

• Bladder cancer
• fluorogenic substrates
• kallikrein-related peptidase 13
• western blot
• proteolytic activity

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Lech Stachurski from hospital of St. Vincent de Paul in Gdynia (Poland) provided urine samples for both bladder cancer and healthy people.

Authors contributions

Conceptualization, N.G. and A.L.; methodology, N.G., A.L.; investigation, N.G., P.R.; writing – original draft preparation, N.G., A.L.; writing – review and editing, N.G., P.R., A.P., A.L.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting findings of the present study are available within the article. Raw data supporting the results are available from the corresponding author ([email protected]) on request.

Additional information

Funding

The research was financially supported by University of Gdansk under the Grant Number 533-T000-GS03-21.