Serum KIF5A, KIF18A, and p53 Autoantibodies as Potential Biomarkers of Asbestos Exposure and Disease

In order to determine the relationship of KIF5A, KIF18A, and p53 autoantibodies to asbestos exposure and disease we used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to analyze their concentrations in stored serum samples from an Italian cohort of 198 asbestos exposed and 164 unexposed workers and a Finnish cohort of asbestosis patients of varying severity (9 ILO Category 0, 43 ILO Category 1, 25 ILO Category 2, and 5 ILO Category 3) who were followed up for cancer incidence (28 asbestos related cancer cases and 51 individuals without asbestos related cancers). Information was collected on demographics, smoking status, asbestos exposure, asbestosis severity, and cancer diagnosis. We found no significant association between p53 autoantibodies and asbestos exposure in this Italian cohort. We also found a non-statistically significant trend of increasing percentages of p53 autoantibody positive individuals in higher ILO categories. We found no association between KIF5A or KIF18A and any form of cancer in this Finnish cohort. We found significantly higher KIF5A levels in asbestos-exposed individuals and significantly lower KIF18A levels in younger and middle-aged, but significantly higher KIF18A levels in older asbestos-exposed individuals in this Italian cohort. We found no significant association between KIF5A and ILO severity, but found increased KIF18A concentrations associated with higher ILO severity scores in this Finnish cohort. Our results suggest KIF18A may be a useful marker of ILO severity and that p53 autoantibodies may be a useful of cancer risk in more severe asbestosis cases. KIF5A may be a useful marker of asbestos exposure.