. 2021 Jul 12;13(14):3490. doi: 10.3390/cancers13143490

Table 1.

Potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of NPC.

Biomolecules	Full Name	Role	Aberration	Sources
Genomic biomarkers
COX-2	Cyclooxygenase-2	Cell proliferation, apoptosis	Polymorphism in rs5275	[21]
MCP-1	Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1	Monocytes or macrophages migration and infiltration	Polymorphism in rs1024611	[22]
GRP78	Glucose-regulated protein	Apoptosis	Polymorphism in rs3216733	[23]
DC-SIGN	Dendritic cells specific intercellular adhesion molecule 3-grabbing nonintegrin	Induced immune cells	Polymorphism in rs7252229, rs735240, rs4804803 or rs2287886	[24,25]
HLA-A2-B46 (Chinese)	Human leukocyte antigen-A2-B46	Immune response	Polymorphism in chromosome 6p21	[26,27]
HLA-A2-B-17 (Chinese)	Human leukocyte antigen-A2-B-17	Immune response
HLA-B5 (Caucasians)	Human leukocyte antigen-B5	Immune response
IL-13	Interleukin-13		Polymorphism in rs20541 (TT genotype)	[28]
Chromosome 3p and 9p	N/A	N/A	Chromosomal loss	[29]
Chromosome 12	N/A	N/A	Gain number	[30]
RASSF1	Ras association (RalGDS/AF-6) domain family member 1A	Tumour suppression, cell growth, proliferation	copy number variant in in 3p21	[1]
CDKN2A, CDKN2B	Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A, 2B	Tumour suppression, cell cycle	Allelic deletion in 9p21.3	[31]
EGFR	Epidermal growth factor receptor	Cell proliferation, cell cycles, apoptosis	Upregulation	[32,33]
BamH1-W	Bacillus amyloliquefaciens 1 WZhet	Viral replicative cycle	Upregulation	[34,35]
A73	N/A	Cell proliferation and angiogenesis	Polymorphism in A157154C	[20,36]
RPMS1	N/A	Cell proliferation and angiogenesis	Polymorphism in G155391A	[20,36]
BALF2	N/A	Viral infection and replication	EBV variants with 162476_C or 163364_T	[37]
miRNA biomarkers
miR17-92	MicroRNA17-92	Targeting PTEN and apoptosis protein	Upregulation	[38]
miR-155	MicroRNA-155	Leucosis	Upregulation	[39]
miR-378	MicroRNA-378	Affect tumour suppression, cell cycle	Upregulation	[40,41]
miR-141	MicroRNA-141	Affect tumour suppression, cell cycle	Upregulation	[40,41]
miR144-3p	MicroRNA-144-3p	Targeting PTEN/Akt, cell cycle, apoptosis	Upregulation	[42]
miR-17-5p	MicroRNA-17-5p
miR-20a-5p	MicroRNA-20a-5p
miR-20b-5p	MicroRNA-20b-5p
miR-205-5p	MicroRNA-205-5p
miR-16	MicroRNA-16	Cell proliferation, invasion	Upregulation	[39]
miR-21	MicroRNA-21	Targets PDCD4, PTEN, SPRY, ERCK, and Bcl-2 family proteins	Upregulation
miR-24	MicroRNA-24	Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition	Upregulation
miR-146a		Inflammation	Upregulation	[6]
miR-34	MicroRNA-34	Tumour suppression	Downregulation	[38]
miR-143	MicroRNA-143	Tumour suppression
miR-145	MicroRNA-145	Tumour suppression
let-7b-5p	MicroRNA let-7b-5p	Cell proliferation	Downregulation	[42]
miR-140-3p	MicroRNA-140-3p	Cell proliferation	Downregulation	[42]
Platelet miR-34c-3p	MicroRNA-34c-3p	Tumour suppression	Upregulation	[28]
Platelet miR-18a-5p	MicroRNA-18a-5p	Tumour suppression	Upregulation	[28]
MALAT1	metastasis associated with lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1	Invasion	Upregulation	[43]
AFAP1-AS1	actin filament-associated protein 1-antisense RNA1	Invasion
AL359062	N/A	N/A
EBER	Epstein–Barr encoding region	Cell proliferation, apoptosis, innate immunity	Four base deletion SNPs	[44]
miR-BART7-3p	BamH1 A rightward transcript 7-3p	Cell proliferation targeting NF-κB signalling, angiogenesis targeting AMPK/mTOR/HIF1 signalling	Upregulation	[8,45,46]
miR-BART13-3p	BamH1 A rightward transcript 13-3p	Cell proliferation targeting NF-κB signalling, angiogenesis targeting AMPK/mTOR/HIF1 signalling	Upregulation	[8,45,46]
Protein biomarkers
PAI-1	Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1	Angiogenesis, signalling activities	Upregulation	[47]
Fibronectin	N/A	Cell adhesion
Mac-2 BP	Mac-2-binding protein	Cell adhesion
CTSD	Cathepsin D	Apoptosis	Upregulation	[48]
POSTN	Periostin	Cell adhesion	Upregulation	[49]
CK18	Cytokeratin 18	Transcription	Upregulation	[50]
KRT8	Keratin-8	Tumour necrosis factor-mediated signaling pathway, cell differentiation	Upregulation	[48]
STMN1	Stathmin-1	Signal transduction	Upregulation	[48]
LCP1	L-plastin	Cell differentiation	Upregulation	[51]
LGALS1	Galectin-1	Apoptosis	Upregulation	[52]
S100A9	S100 calcium-binding protein A9	Cell proliferation, innate immunity, apoptosis	Upregulation	[51]
CCL5	C-C motif chemokine 5	Cell adhesion, migration, apoptosis	Upregulation	[53]
CLIC1	Chloride intracellular channel 1	Cell cycle, signal transduction	Upregulation	[54]
LMP1	Latent membrane protein	Signalling activities	Upregulation	[55]
P-Thr-sv-5	N/A	Gene expression (sub-variant of EBNA1)	subvariant of EBNA1	[56]
EBNA1/IgA	EBV nuclear antigens immunoglobulin A	Antibody against EBV antigen	Increased level	[57,58]
VCA/IgA	Viral capsid antigen immunoglobulin A	Antibody against EBV antigen	Increased level	[57,58]
BALF2/Ab	BALF2 antibodies	Antibody against EBV antigen	Increased level	[37]
Metabolite biomarkers
kynurenine	N/A	Metabolism	Upregulation	[59]
N-acetylglucosaminylamine	N/A	Metabolism
N-acetylglucosamine hydroxyphenylpyruvate	N/A	Metabolism
Pyroglutamate	N/A	Metabolism	Upregulation	[60]
Glucose	N/A	Metabolism
Glutamate	N/A	Metabolism
Glycerol 1-hexadecanoate	N/A	Metabolism	Upregulation	[61]
b-hydroxybutyrate	N/A	Metabolism
Arachidonic acid	N/A	Metabolism
Stearic acid	N/A	Metabolism
Linoleic acid	N/A	Metabolism
Proline	N/A	Metabolism

N/A. Not available.