Esophageal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignant gastrointestinal
tumors. The aim of the study was to explore the diagnostic values of anti-POSTN and anti-TIMP1
autoantibodies in
esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with
esophageal cancer were screened out by the LIMMA method in the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) platform. Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) was used to construct the
protein-
protein interaction (PPI) based on highly DEGs. The candidate hub genes were the intersection genes calculated based on degree and Maximal Clique Centrality (MCC) algorithms via Cytoscape. A total of 370 participants including 185 ESCC patients and 185 matched normal controls were enrolled in
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect the expression levels of
autoantibodies corresponding to POSTN and TIMP1
proteins. A total of 375 DEGs with high expression were obtained in
esophageal cancer. A total of 20 hub genes were acquired using the cytoHubba plugin by degree and MCC algorithms. The expression levels of anti-POSTN and anti-TIMP1
autoantibodies were higher in the sera of ESCC patients (p < 0.05). Anti-POSTN
autoantibody can diagnose ESCC patients with an AUC of 0.638 at the specificity of 90.27% and sensitivity of 27.57%, and anti-TIMP1
autoantibody can diagnose ESCC patients with an AUC of 0.585 at the specificity of 90.27% and sensitivity of 20.54% (p < 0.05). In addition, anti-POSTN and anti-TIMP1
autoantibodies can distinguish ESCC patients from normal controls in most clinical subgroups (p < 0.05). In conclusion, anti-POSTN and anti-TIMP1
autoantibodies may be considered the potential
biomarkers in the clinical diagnosis of ESCC.