6 research outputs found
Analytical techniques for multiplex analysis of protein biomarkers
Introduction: The importance of biomarkers for pharmaceutical drug development and clinical diagnostics is more significant than ever in the current shift toward personalized medicine. Biomarkers have taken a central position either as companion markers to support drug development and patient selection, or as indicators aiming to detect the earliest perturbations indicative of disease, minimizing therapeutic intervention or even enabling disease reversal. Protein biomarkers are of particular interest given their central role in biochemical pathways. Hence, capabilities to analyze multiple protein biomarkers in one assay are highly interesting for biomedical research. Areas covered: We here review multiple methods that are suitable for robust, high throughput, standardized, and affordable analysis of protein biomarkers in a multiplex format. We describe innovative developments in immunoassays, the vanguard of methods in clinical laboratories, and mass spectrometry, increasingly implemented for protein biomarker analysis. Moreover, emerging techniques are discussed with potentially improved protein capture, separation, and detection that will further boost multiplex analyses. Expert commentary: The development of clinically applied multiplex protein biomarker assays is essential as multi-protein signatures provide more comprehensive information about biological systems than single biomarkers, leading to improved insights in mechanisms of disease, diagnostics, and the effect of personalized medicine
Analytical techniques for multiplex analysis of protein biomarkers
Introduction: The importance of biomarkers for pharmaceutical drug development and clinical diagnostics is more significant than ever in the current shift toward personalized medicine. Biomarkers have taken a central position either as companion markers to support drug development and patient selection, or as indicators aiming to detect the earliest perturbations indicative of disease, minimizing therapeutic intervention or even enabling disease reversal. Protein biomarkers are of particular interest given their central role in biochemical pathways. Hence, capabilities to analyze multiple protein biomarkers in one assay are highly interesting for biomedical research. Areas covered: We here review multiple methods that are suitable for robust, high throughput, standardized, and affordable analysis of protein biomarkers in a multiplex format. We describe innovative developments in immunoassays, the vanguard of methods in clinical laboratories, and mass spectrometry, increasingly implemented for protein biomarker analysis. Moreover, emerging techniques are discussed with potentially improved protein capture, separation, and detection that will further boost multiplex analyses. Expert commentary: The development of clinically applied multiplex protein biomarker assays is essential as multi-protein signatures provide more comprehensive information about biological systems than single biomarkers, leading to improved insights in mechanisms of disease, diagnostics, and the effect of personalized medicine.</div
A quantitative morphometric study of rectal mucosa in adult and aged healthy subjects
Rectal mucosa is relatively susceptible to
pathological processes and frequently it is affected by
various diseases. However, there is a notable lack of
quantitative data regarding normal rectal mucosa, which
would provide a reference for histoquantitative studies
of the pathologically changed tissue. Therefore, we
obtained the tissue from 27 healthy patients subjected to
diagnostic rectoscopy during active screening for
asymptomatic cancer of the large intestine, in which no
disease was found. Using computer-aided morphometric
analysis, we studied all structural elements of the rectal
mucosa. The patients were divided into four groups
according to the age and sex: adult males, elderly males,
adult females and elderly females. The patients under 60
years of age were grouped as adult and those older than
60 years as aged subjects. A decreased height of surface
epithelium was registered in both elderly male and
female groups. This finding, however, was significant
only when adult and elderly male groups were
compared. The tendency towards reduction of the
mucosal height was also registered comparing male
adult and elderly groups. The number of crypts per 0.1
mm2 of tissue increased with aging in both males and
females, whereby the crypts were always more
numerous in males than in females. The increase in
number of crypts in male subjects was accompanied by a
decrease in their diameter and perimeter. The changes
associated with ageing were discrete and affected only
the male subjects