Novel universal primers to identify the expression of mage a1-a10 in the core biopsy of lung cancer

Background: Recent studies have reported that melanoma antigen (MAGE) gene is expressed in a variety of cancers and testicular tissues. The expression of MAGE-A genes could be used for biomarkers with high tumor specificity; however, there is still a lack of data on most solid tumors. The objective of this study was to construct novel universal primers for detecting the mRNA of MAGE A1-10 genes in lung cancer patients. Method: We conducted this cross-sectional study in 2017 at Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia. The specimens were a testicular tissue and 15 core biopsies of lung cancer tissues. We designed the universal primers to bind the mRNA of MAGE A1, A2, A2B, A3, A4, A5, A6, A8, A9, A9B, and A10 regions; the assay was performed by nested PCR and continued by direct sequencing. Results: Using the universal primer MAGE A1-10, the PCR was able to detect the MAGE A mRNA of 10 subtypes of MAGE A from testicular and lung cancer tissues. The sequences analysis of individual MAGE A1-10 showed the same homology with MAGE A from GenBank data. Among the 15 lung cancer patients, 13/15 (86.67%) tested positive for GAPDH; subsequently, they were considered for MAGE-A gene detection; while, those testing negative for GAPDH were excluded. The PCR results showed that 12/13 (92.31%) had positive MAGE A1-10 tests and 3/13 (23.08%) tested positive for MAGE A1-6. Conclusion: This finding showed that the novel universal primers could be applied as a new tool for detecting MAGE A1-10 expression in cancer cells.