Label-free based proteomics analysis of tissue profiles reveals the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) has seriously threatened human life and health. Nowadays, research on the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of CRC is still ongoing. Finding safe, convenient and reliable protein biomarkers of CRC will contribute to CRC diagnosis and treatment. In this study, label-free quantitative proteomics was used to profile the colorectal tissues of CRC in mice. Bioinformatics was used to fine the differentially expressed proteins. We identified 57 differentially expressed proteins with 29 significantly up-regulated and 28 significantly down-regulated. Results of Gene Ontology (GO) showed that most of the differentially expressed proteins located in the cytoplasm and extracellular exosomes, and they were involved in specific metabolic processes. Further metabolic pathway enrichment analysis showed that most of the differentially expressed proteins were related to metabolism of arginine and proline. In addition, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis indicated that the up-regulated protein ALDH1B1 stayed at the key position in the network. Taking all the results together, it can be speculated that AMPN, AOC1, MYO1A and MAOB may be potential proteic biomarkers of CRC.