Exploring Urine Protein Biomarkers for Bladder Cancer Diagnosis

Oncotarget published this trending research paper on April 13, 2021, entitled, "Urine protein biomarkers of bladder cancer arising from 16-plex antibody-based screens" conducted by researchers from the University of Houston and UT Southwestern Medical Center. Bladder cancer is four times more common among men than women, and it is the sixth most common cancer diagnosis in the United States. However, researchers have found that cystoscopy—the primary method physicians use to diagnose patients with bladder cancer—is relatively invasive, expensive, and has the potential to cause urinary tract infections. “In contrast, urine is a noninvasive and readily available biological fluid that can be used for diagnostic tests.” Patients may benefit in a number of different ways by using urine as fluid in diagnostic testing for bladder cancer. Urine is readily bioavailable, non-invasive, and it can also be collected and tested on a regular basis. Patients can even use various cost-effective point-of-care diagnostic tools, including at-home testing. First, the researchers assessed whether there were useful biomarkers of bladder cancer to be found in this fluid. The team used Luminex screening to test for both low and high levels of 16 proteins utilizing highly specific antibody-protein interactions. “In this study, Luminex screening was used to simultaneously assay the protein abundances of 16 potential biomarkers in different stages of bladder cancer and then compared to urology clinic controls.” ELISA validation was then used to determine which proteins were significantly elevated in bladder cancer. They found that levels of three urine proteins were capable of distinguishing between control and bladder cancer urine. One protein was also found to be capable of discriminating between high- and low-grade disease, and the successive clinical stages of bladder cancer. “Upon ELISA validation, urine IL-1α, IL-1ra, and IL-8 were able to distinguish control urine from urine drawn from various bladder cancer stages, with IL-8 being the best discriminator.” To date, the research paper has generated an Altmetric Attention Score of 55. The Altmetric Attention Score provides an at-a-glance indication of the volume and type of online attention the research has received. Top Oncotarget publications rated by Altmetric Attention Score - https://www.oncotarget.com/news/altmetric/ Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article - https://oncotarget.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Foncotarget.27941 DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27941 Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27941/text/ Correspondence to - Chandra Mohan - cmohan@central.uh.edu Keywords - urothelial, proteomics, targeted screens, interleukins, inflammation About Oncotarget Oncotarget is a bi-weekly, peer-reviewed, open access biomedical journal covering research on all aspects of oncology. To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com or connect with: SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/oncotarget Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/oncotarget YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/OncotargetYouTube/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/ Oncotarget is published by Impact Journals, LLC please visit https://www.ImpactJournals.com or connect with @ImpactJrnls Media Contact MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM 18009220957