High Prevalence of Chronic Diseases and Need for Effective In-Vitro Diagnostic Solutions Prompts R&D of Novel Biomarkers
In medicine, a biomarker is any measurable sign of a certain disease condition or any physical characteristic of an individual. It can only be determined by observing the health status of a person under controlled conditions. There are many different types of biomarkers. For example, immunoassays, transcriptome profile, chemistries, ELISA, and others.
High prevalence of
chronic diseases has prompted R&D of novel biomarkers. For instance, in
March 2019, Baxter International Inc., the U.S.-based healthcare company, partnered
with bioMérieux, Inc., a France-based provider of in-vitro diagnostic
solutions, to develop future biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of
acute kidney injury.
Biomarkers are proteins
or DNA fragments that are uniquely designed to serve as the control for
biological experiment. These biomarkers provide a quantitative analysis of the
expression level of a specific protein or set of genes in a cell. They can also
measure the concentration of specific proteins across tissues and cells. Different
assays can measure changes over time. These changes are interpreted as
expression level shifts towards the target of interest. Because these proteins
are unique to each cell type, they are termed as cellular markers.
There are two broad
categories of biological markers: molecular and imaging. Molecular biomarkers
are DNA fragments that are either repetitive or independent. Imaging biomarkers
are those that are used in radiological procedures such as fluorescence,
chemiluminescence, flow imaging, and others. These biomarkers are used for the
study of gene function in humans and animals. Some examples are DNA microarray
analysis and biochemical array experiments.
Cancer treatments rely
on pre-screening to detect the presence of abnormal cells. This can be done
through genetic, chromosomal, transcriptomic, and proteomic analyses. These
studies provide information needed in evaluating and treating patients with
various types of cancers including renal cell carcinoma, cervical, breast, and
ovarian cancer. Most cancer treatments also use some form of biological marker.
In response to this need, there has been a steady growth in the use of
therapeutic and preventative cancer biomarkers.
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