A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Aberrantly glycosylated PSMA in urine as a potential marker for prostate cancer
Authors: Khan, Misba; Islam, Md. Khirul; Taimen, Pekka; Boström, Peter J.; Lamminmäki, Urpo; Leivo, Janne
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Clinica Chimica Acta
Article number: 120790
Volume: 582
ISSN: 0009-8981
eISSN: 1873-3492
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2025.120790
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Partially Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2025.120790
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/508197116
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Additional information: Correction to this article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2025.120818 ; DOI: 10.1016/j.cca.2025.120818
Early detection of prostate cancer (PCa) requires the development of reliable non-invasive biomarkers. In this study, we describe a simple, non-invasive assay to detect a prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) glycoisoform directly from unprocessed urine. PSMA was analyzed in urine samples from PCa patients (n = 40) and benign controls (n = 37) using lectin MGL-coated europium-doped nanoparticles. MGL showed enhanced binding to PCa-derived PSMA, indicating aberrant glycosylation. Evaluation of individual samples demonstrated that the PSMA-MGL glycovariant assay significantly discriminated PCa from benign conditions (p = 0.01 pilot, p = 0.02 validation). Moreover, this assay exhibited a three-fold improvement in sensitivity over conventional antibody-based PSMA detection. ROC analysis showed an AUC of 0.648 for PSMA-MGL, which increased to 0.734 when combined with free-PSA and urinary creatinine, highlighting the enhanced diagnostic potential of this multimarker, non-invasive approach.
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Funding information in the publication:
This research work was primarily supported by the MSCA-ITN proEVLifeCycle project (European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 860303), with additional support from the Southwest Finland Cancer Society. We also acknowledge support from the DPT-University of Turku Graduate School and Research Council of Finland’s Flagship InFLAMES. We gratefully acknowledge the Turku Prostate Cancer Consortium (TPCC) for providing the clinical samples essential for the study. We sincerely thank all patients for their participation, samples, and informed consent.
