Search for New Methods for Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

Numerous cellular components are being studied to identify new possibilities for effective cancer diagnosis. Researchers have proposed proteins, miRNA, micronuclei, DNA, and other biochemical or cytological objects as potential markers and targets for disease detection and management. Often quantitative changes of these objects, increase or decrease, are observed in the blood serum of patients, which correlates with the severity of the disease or the effectiveness of treatment. In this regard, today, as never before, the issue of cancer management is acute and the study of cellular proteins is highly appropriate and effective. Management of cellular processes is associated with the activation and inhibition of various metabolic pathways. Typically, manipulating a single protein causes a chain initiation of multiple reactions. It is therefore difficult to say unequivocally that quantitative modification, activation or inhibition of this or that protein may be an unconditional marker or target to solve the above-mentioned problem. It is common for proteins already recognized as markers to manifest themselves differently in individuals. We therefore believe that the study of diagnostic agents should be conducted in a complex manner parallel to the metabolic pathways associated with corresponding proteins. We investigated changes of ubiquitin levels in blood serum of cancer patients and healthy volunteers. Elisa test and subsequent statistical analysis were used for assessment. The results indicate the necessity of further investigation of ubiquitin  and other proteins that may react or indirectly affect ubiquitin level variability.