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Showing posts for the Article of Interest - Sreekumar et al. Nature. 2009 Feb 12; 457(7231):910-4 topic:
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dmutch@uoguelph.ca
[Feb 25 2009 at 07:50:09 AM] |
As with all ‘omic-driven experiments, one of the principle goals is to identify novel biomarkers that may have an eventual clinical use. Admittedly, this goal is ambitious and moving research from the bench to the bedside is a long and arduous process. The recent work by Sreekumar and colleagues published in Nature demonstrates the appropriateness of using metabolite profiling to identify novel biomarkers that may be of eventual clinical relevance for monitoring disease progression. In this study, the authors profiled over 600 metabolites in tissue samples defined as benign adjacent prostrate, clinically localized prostate cancer, and metastatic prostrate cancer. Sarcosine was identified as a metabolite whose abundance significantly increased during prostrate cancer progression and this finding was subsequently confirmed in an independent set of tissue samples. When the authors switched to cultured prostate cancer cell lines and their benign counterparts, they demonstrated that the inhibition of enzymes regulating cellular sarcosine levels modulated prostrate cancer invasion. When monitoring sarcosine levels in the urine of men who had biopsies that were classified as either positive or negative for prostate cancer, the authors found increased sarcosine levels in biopsy-positive prostate cancer subjects; however its overall predictive value remained modest. Nevertheless, sarcosine was found to predict better than prostrate cancer antigen, the current test used for the early detection of this disease. While this finding is potentially of great clinical relevance, it requires subsequent validation in both larger and ethnically diverse populations before its routine use as a diagnostic marker can be considered. However, studies such as this validate the use of comprehensive metabolite profiling for the identification of biomarkers that can be used to monitor disease onset and progression, while providing important clues as to how pharmaceutical and lifestyle interventions may eventually treat and prevent disease.
Full Article: Sreekumar et al. Nature. 2009 Feb 12; 457(7231):910-4.
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