ПРИМЕНЕНИЕ МЕТОДА ЭПР-СПЕКТРОСКОПИИ ДЛЯ ДИАГНОСТИКИ И ПРОГНОЗА ОНКОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ЗАБОЛЕВАНИЙ

Diagnostic medicine has significantly changed during the past decade. The emergence of proteomics and genomics has significantly increased our understanding of disease. These fields have also  revealed the vast array of proteins that are expressed in various  disease processes, such as cancer. Measurement of these unique  proteins expressed in certain diseases may offer diagnostic clues or  allow patient prognosis to be assessed. Another approach is to  measure the effects that these ligands have on the structure and function of albumin. Albumin is known to play an important role  in modulating the serum concentrations of various proteins produced by tumor cells. In this review, we introduce the reader to the  technique of spin labeling followed by electron paramagnetic  resonance spectroscopy. This method is a powerful tool for evaluating the structural and functional changes that can occur to albumin following the binding of various ligands. We describe the  utility of this technique for the diagnosis of cancer and sepsis, as  well as some other novel potential applications.