Search results for "Disease biomarker"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
2018
Drosophila melanogaster has been for over a century the model of choice of several neurobiologists to decipher the formation and development of the nervous system as well as to mirror the pathophysiological conditions of many human neurodegenerative diseases. The rare disease Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) is not an exception. Since the isolation of the responsible gene more than two decades ago, the analysis of the fly orthologue has proven to be an excellent avenue to understand the development and progression of the disease, to unravel pivotal mechanisms underpinning the pathology and to identify genes and molecules that might well be either disease biomarkers or promising targets for therap…
Epigenetic biomarkers: Current strategies and future challenges for their use in the clinical laboratory
2017
Epigenetic modifications and regulators represent potential molecular elements which control relevant physiological and pathological features, thereby contributing to the natural history of human disease. These epigenetic modulators can be employed as disease biomarkers, since they show several advantages and provide information about gene function, thus explaining differences among patient endophenotypes. In addition, epigenetic biomarkers can incorporate information regarding the effects of the environment and lifestyle on health and disease, and monitor the effect of applied therapies. Technologies used to analyze these epigenetic biomarkers are constantly improving, becoming much easier…
Disease Biomarkers: Modelling MR Spectroscopy and Clinical Applications
2012
Clinical MRS has become a reference technique for in vivo evaluating the metabolism of different tissues, with special application to brain and prostate lesion characterization and tumour’s follow-up. It allows detecting relevant changes that cannot be appreciated in the conventional MR images. Nowadays, MRS has been widely applied in many different brain pathologies with excellent results as a disease biomarker. Since the different diseases and grades have different manifestations in the spectroscopic profile, a deep understanding of the subjacent biology is needed for the signal interpretation. The development of high-field (≥3 T) scanners has permitted the acquisition of high-quality MRS…
Endothelial Progenitor Cells and Their Clinical Applications as Potential Disease Biomarkers and Therapeutic Agents: Evidence and Controversies Regar…
2017
The discovery and progress in the field of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are leading numerous researchers to discuss applying them as potential predictive, diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of age-related diseases in order to improve the prevention, management and outcome of such diseases. However, growing evidence suggests changes in the number and functions of EPCs significantly associated with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and the associated complications. In addition, EPCs have been suggested as therapeutic agents for many of these diseases. Certainly, many aspects remain to be clarified, and controversies must be verified and eliminated. As a r…
Dendrimer-encapsulated and cored metal nanoparticles for electrochemical nanobiosensing
2014
Abstract We discuss nanosized dendrimers from the point of view of electrochemical-biosensor design. We review electrochemical biosensors based on dendrimer-encapsulated metal nanoparticles (NPs) and their various applications (e.g., measurement of small biological and toxic molecules, detection of DNA, and immunosensing of disease biomarkers). Finally, we discuss some future applications of electrochemical biosensors based on dendrimer-encapsulated metal NPs.