Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36348299›Full record

ArticleBMC bioinformatics2022

Automated classification of protein expression levels in immunohistochemistry images to improve the detection of cancer biomarkers.

Zhen-Zhen Xue, Cheng Li, Zhuo-Ming Luo, Shan-Shan Wang, Ying-Ying Xu

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC bioinformatics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
0.3field-weighted citation impact, top 47% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Glycoprotein Mucin 13 Expression as a Theranostic Target in Colorectal Cancer.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. An overview of the detection of bovine respiratory disease complex pathogens using immunohistochemistry: emerging trends and opportunities.Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc · 2024
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Zhen-Zhen XueSchool of Biomedical Engineering and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
Cheng LiPaul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
Zhuo-Ming LuoSchool of Biomedical Engineering and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
Shan-Shan WangPaul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
Ying-Ying XuSchool of Biomedical Engineering and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China. yyxu@smu.edu.cn.
Southern Medical University · CNPeng Cheng Laboratory · CNShenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology · CN

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China 61803196National Natural Science Foundation of China 61871371Science and Technology Projects in Guangzhou 202102021087
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe expression changes of some proteins are associated with cancer progression, and can be used as biomarkers in cancer diagnosis. Automated systems have been frequently applied in the large-scale detection of protein biomarkers and have provided a valuable complement for wet-laboratory experiments. For example, our previous work used an immunohistochemical image-based machine learning classifier of protein subcellular locations to screen biomarker proteins that change locations in colon cancer tissues. The tool could recognize the location of biomarkers but did not consider the effect of protein expression level changes on the screening process.

resultsIn this study, we built an automated classification model that recognizes protein expression levels in immunohistochemical images, and used the protein expression levels in combination with subcellular locations to screen cancer biomarkers. To minimize the effect of non-informative sections on the immunohistochemical images, we employed the representative image patches as input and applied a Wasserstein distance method to determine the number of patches. For the patches and the whole images, we compared the ability of color features, characteristic curve features, and deep convolutional neural network features to distinguish different levels of protein expression and employed deep learning and conventional classification models. Experimental results showed that the best classifier can achieve an accuracy of 73.72% and an F1-score of 0.6343. In the screening of protein biomarkers, the detection accuracy improved from 63.64 to 95.45% upon the incorporation of the protein expression changes.

conclusionsMachine learning can distinguish different protein expression levels and speed up their annotation in the future. Combining information on the expression patterns and subcellular locations of protein can improve the accuracy of automatic cancer biomarker screening. This work could be useful in discovering new cancer biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and research.

Indexed as

Biomarkers, TumorNeoplasmsImmunohistochemistryMachine LearningNeural Networks, ComputerProteinsBiomarkers, TumorProteinsBioimage processingBioinformaticsCancer biomarkerMachine learningProtein expression level

Identifiers

PMID36348299
PMCPMC9644510
OpenAlexW4308531544

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.