A research team has found a way to detect pancreatic cancer early

New Jersey [USA], August 12: Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease, mainly because it is diagnosed late in life. Current symptoms are too vague and sensitive to allow early detection efforts. Now, in the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team of researchers has developed a new method to make the test more accurate and reliable. This method is based on the detection of specific antibodies in blood samples.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly diseases, mostly due to its appearance in life. Current markers are too sensitive and misleading for screening purposes when detected early. Recently, in the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has a special method that makes the test more reliable and accurate. This technology is based on the detection of antibodies in blood samples.

They chose to use an autoantibody against tumor-associated mucin-1 (TA-MUC1). Mucin-1 is a highly glycosylated protein found in glandular tissue. Its concentration is very high in many types of tumors, including pancreatic cancer. In addition, the glycosylation pattern differs from the natural form. The team’s goal was to identify antibodies that target TA-MUC1, a well-established pancreatic cancer marker.

Based on structural analysis and computer simulations of known TA-MUC1 antibodies (SM3 and 5E5), the team developed synthetic glycopeptides that mimic different parts (epitopes) of TA-MUC1. They also made unusual changes to increase the likelihood of detecting a subset of disease-causing autoantibodies. The research team immobilized these model antigens on gold nanoparticles and obtained suitable probes for serological detection (in situ detection). The test has been validated on primary samples of pancreatic cancer patients and healthy controls. Some nanoparticle sensors can detect tumor-associated autoantibodies by separating samples from sick and healthy individuals. Notably, these specific antibodies showed a higher true/false positive ratio than current clinical biomarkers for pancreatic cancer.

Because of hybridization, probes with small glycopeptide antigens targeting only one epitope work better than larger probes targeting multiple epitopes. Short glycopeptides have been shown to be particularly useful in detecting antibodies specific for abnormal changes in sugar content.   This new structure-based approach facilitates the selection of antibody subsets with high tumor specificity.

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Author: MedBlog18 Blog Team

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