Glycoproteomics-based liquid biopsy: translational outlook for colorectal cancer clinical management in Southeast Asia.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) signifies a significant healthcare challenge in Southeast Asia. Despite advancements in screening approaches and treatment modalities, significant medical gaps remain, ranging from prevention and early diagnosis to determining targeted therapy and establishing personalized approaches to managing CRC. There is a need to expand more validated biomarkers in clinical practice. An advanced technique incorporating high-throughput mass spectrometry as a liquid biopsy to unravel a repertoire of glycoproteins and glycans would potentially drive the development of clinical tools for CRC screening, diagnosis and monitoring, and it can be further adapted to the existing standard-of-care procedure. Therefore this review offers a perspective on glycoproteomics-driven liquid biopsy and its potential integration into the clinical care of CRC in the southeast Asia region.

The Immunosuppressive Effect of TNFR2 Expression in the Colorectal Cancer Microenvironment.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents one of the most common causes of death among cancers worldwide. Its incidence has been increasing among the young population. Many risk factors contribute to the development and progression of CRC and about 70% of them are sporadic. The CRC microenvironment is highly heterogeneous and represents a very complex immunosuppressive platform. Many cytokines and their receptors are vital participants in this immunosuppressive microenvironment. Tumor necrosis factors (TNFs) and TNF receptor 2 (TNFR2) are critical players in the development of CRC. TNFR2 was observed to have increased the immunosuppressive activity of CRC cells via regulatory T cells (T regs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) in the CRC microenvironment. However, the exact mechanism of TNFR2 in regulating the CRC prognosis remains elusive. Here, we discuss the role of TNFR2 in immune escape mechanism of CRC in the immunosuppressive cells, including Tregs and MDSCs, and the complex signaling pathways that facilitate the development of CRC. It is suggested that extensive studies on TNFR2 downstream signaling must be done, since TNFR2 has a high potential to be developed into a therapeutic agent and cancer biomarker in the future.