Electrophoretic fingerprint metallothionein analysis as a potential prostate cancer biomarker

Abstract

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a routinely used marker of prostate cancer; however, the cut-off values for unambiguous positive/negative prostate cancer diagnoses are not defined. Therefore, despite the best effort, certain percentage of misdiagnosed cases is being recorded every year. For this reason, search for more specific diagnostic markers is of great interest. In this study, systematic comparison of PSA and metallothionein (MT) levels in blood serum of 46 prostate cancer-diagnosed patients is presented. It is clearly demonstrated that PSA levels vary significantly and despite normal total PSA values in the range of 0 - 4 ng/mL were obtained in over 36.9% of cases, positive prostate cancer was diagnosed by biopsy. In contrary, MT levels were considerably elevated in all tested samples and no significant variations were observed. These results are indicating the potential of MT as an additional prostate cancer marker reducing, in combination with PSA, the probability of false positive/negative diagnosis. To increase the throughput of the screening, chip-based capillary electrophoresis was suggested as a rapid and effective method for the fingerprinting analysis of prostate cancer from diseased blood sera.

Caveolin-1 as a potential high-risk prostate cancer biomarker

“…We subsequently performed correlation analyses between caveolin-1 and other potential serum markers of prostate cancer, which we have determined in our previous studies on the same sample set of patients (59). Thus, regarding PSA, which is mentioned in this table for overall complexity, here we show associations of caveolin-1 with MT and AMACR (Fig.…”

Evaluation ofalpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase, metallothionein and prostate specific antigen as prostate cancer prognostic markers

“…Metallothionein has been previously demonstrated by our group as a prostate cancer tumor marker with high sensitivity and specificity [23]. In this study, we demonstrate that alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase does not differ in serum of prostate cancer patients and controls, however, AMACR is distinctly higher in high-grade (Gleason score 9) tumors and level of MT shows a descending trend in relation to Gleason score.…”

“…Metallothionein, AMACR, free PSA and total PSA levels were detected in the blood serum of prostate cancer patients and volunteers to assess their applicability as markers of prostate cancer. Our group has previously shown that serum MT levels are elevated with high level of specificity and sensitivity in prostate cancer patients with possible application as an additional tool for prostate cancer diagnosis [23]. Compared to previous study, in this paper the group of tested samples has been enlarged.…”

“…However, there is significant rate of patients who are treated in vain [18]. Due to these facts, it is quite necessary to find such prostate carcinoma markers that are useful for distinction of aggressive and latent tumor forms already at early stages of the disease [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Metallothionein (MT) and alpha-methyl CoA-racemase (AMACR) belong to the possible markers of prostate carcinoma at early stages, but their clinical potential must be still investigated.…”

Isolation of metallothionein from cells derived from aggressive form of high‐grade prostate carcinoma using paramagnetic antibody‐modified microbeads off‐line coupled with electrochemical and electrophoretic analysis

“…Isolation, separation, detection, and/or quantification of MT are not easy tasks for modern bioanalytical chemistry. From the point of view of MT separation, electrophoretic methods have several advantages [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].Numerous methods and approaches have been developed to shorten the time of isolation and to obtain biologically important molecules with sufficient purity to be Abbreviations: AO, Acridine orange; MP, paramagnetic or superparamagnetic particle/bead; MT, metallothionein; MTT, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide …”