biomarker

biomarker, a measurable and quantifiable biological parameter that serves as an indicator of a particular physiological state. In a medical context, a biomarker is a substance whose detection indicates a particular disease state or a response to a therapeutic intervention. Examples include the presence of specific pathological entities, cytological or histological characteristics, genetic mutations, or proteins. Alterations at the level of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and protein expression may also serve as biomarkers. Decades of research have produced molecular markers that serve as tools for health-related assessments, epidemiologic studies, and the diagnosis of disease, ranging from cancer to cardiovascular, neurological, and inflammatory diseases.

The ability to effectively treat and cure a disease is often directly dependent on the capability to detect it at its earliest stage. Especially for cancer, there has been a great need to improve early diagnostics, since the disease is often diagnosed in advanced stages, which delays timely treatment and can lead to a poor prognosis. Increasing interest in assessing cancer risk, monitoring disease, predicting recurrence, and determining the efficacy of treatments has coincided with developments in the fields of genomics and proteomics. As a result, molecules associated with different types of cancers have been uncovered with a variety of technologies, including DNA and tissue microarray, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, and protein assays coupled with advanced bioinformatic tools.

For clinical implementation and routine use, the ideal biomarker is highly specific for a particular disease condition and is measurable in easily accessible body fluids, such as saliva, serum, or urine. Thus, a cancer biomarker, for example, may be associated with a specific response of the body to cancer, or it may be a substance secreted by the malignancy itself and easily detected in a body fluid. Examples of routinely used cancer biomarkers include CA 15–3 (breast cancer), CA 125 (ovarian cancer), and PSA (prostate cancer).

Clinically reliable biomarkers, however, are rare, and most candidate biomarkers are found in many different types of disease. To refine the discovery process, biomarker pattern proteome analysis can be used to study the expression profiles of hundreds of proteins in parallel. Thus, several relatively nonspecific biomarkers can be combined in order to provide a more specific disease index.

A platform that holds special promise for the discovery of biomarkers combines protein arrays with SELDI-TOF-MS (surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry). This approach distinguishes between disease and disease-free states by allowing for the analysis of complex protein mixtures and expression differences between proteins. Applying computational methods, the generated multiple proteomic spectra are superimposed to detect changes in protein expression and their association with disease conditions.