Caspase-4 has potential utility as a colorectal tissue biomarker for dysplasia and early-stage cancer

Background and aims: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most deadly cancer globally. The rapidly rising incidence rate of CRC, coupled with increased diagnoses in individuals <50 years, indicates that early detection of CRC, and those at an increased risk of CRC development, is paramount to improve the survival rates of these patients. Here, we profile caspase-4 expression across 2 distinct CRC development pathways, sporadic CRC (sCRC) and inflammatory bowel disease-associated CRC (IBD-CRC), to examine its utility as a novel biomarker for CRC risk and diagnosis.

Methods: Tissue samples from patients with CRC, colonic polyps, IBD-CRC, and sCRC were assessed by immunohistochemistry for caspase-4 expression in epithelial and stromal compartments. RNAseq expression data for caspase-4 in CRC and normal tissue samples were mined from online databases.

Results: Epithelial caspase-4 expression is selectively elevated in CRC tumor tissue compared to adjacent normal tissue, where it is not expressed. In the sCRC pathway, caspase-4 is expressed in the epithelial and stromal tissue of all histological subtypes of colonic polyps, with a significant increase in epithelial expression from low-grade dysplasia to high-grade dysplasia progression. For the IBD-CRC pathway, caspase-4 epithelial expression was specifically upregulated in dysplastic and neoplastic tissue of IBD-CRC but was not expressed in normal or inflamed tissue.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that epithelial caspase-4 is selectively expressed in colon tissue during the development of dysplasia. As such, epithelial caspase-4 represents a promising novel tissue biomarker for CRC risk and diagnosis.