Detecting Cancer Proteins by Phage Amplification

A technique for detecting minute amounts of proteins produced by cancer cells that may substantially increase the ability of laboratories to diagnose the disease was described in a recent publication.

Investigators at Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC, USA) used the random peptide-expressing M13 bacteriophage to develop a method to amplify and detect levels of proteins that are produced in varying levels within both diseased and healthy tissues. The method, which they call ADEPPT (accentuation of differentially expressed proteins using phage technology), may eventually allow researchers to identify specific proteins produced by cancer cells. This knowledge could then be used in the development of diagnostic tests and new anti-cancer drugs.

The new technique relies on the use of a large library of different strains of M13 bacteriophage. These viruses produce peptides that bind to specific host cell proteins, and the ADEPPT technology monitors this binding. A "proof-of-principle” study on the proteins produced by lung cancer cells was published in the October 15, 2004, issue of Analytical Biochemistry.

"Increasingly, cancer diagnosis and treatment will become dependant upon isolating the proteins responsible for disease and using these proteins to develop targeted therapies aimed at blocking or enhancing them,” said senior author Dr. Edward F. Patz, professor of radiology, pharmacology, and cancer biology at Duke University Medical Center. "But much of our time is spent on isolating which proteins are relevant to a particular cancer, and if we could speed that process, we may be able to develop new therapies. By detecting less abundant proteins, this approach could be used in a wide range of disease types.”




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Duke University Medical Center