Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

Download Mobile App




Enzyme Signpost Points to Better Bowel Cancer Test

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 20 Mar 2016
Print article
Image: The ScheBo Tumor M2-PK Stool sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Photo courtesy of ScheBo Biotech AG).
Image: The ScheBo Tumor M2-PK Stool sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Photo courtesy of ScheBo Biotech AG).
A sensitive screening tool for colorectal cancer that detects a special isoenzyme of pyruvate kinase, termed M2-PK, which leaks from the cancerous tissue into the bowel, can then be found in feces.

One alteration consistently found during tumor formation, including gastrointestinal tumors, is the upregulation of glycolytic enzymes. This upregulation takes place at the ribonucleic acid (RNA) and protein level, as well as at the level of enzymatic activities.

The UK Government is currently considering the introduction of a national bowel-screening program. One of the screening tests under consideration is based on the work done several years ago by scientists at the Giessen University Hospital, (Germany) and their colleagues. The team asked patients, given appointments for colonoscopy for various reasons, to provide one stool sample for measuring fecal Tumor M2-PK. Endoscopies were carried out as standard investigations. Histology was obtained from the routine biopsies and/or from surgery. In all, 60 patients with colorectal cancer have been evaluated.

Stool samples of patients with colorectal cancer and patients without pathological findings were tested. Tumor M2-PK was measured with a commercially available sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (ScheBo Biotech AG; Giessen, Germany). The ELISA plate is coated with a monoclonal antibody against Tumor M2-PK. Tumor M2-PK from stool samples or standards binds to the antibody. A second monoclonal antibody, which is biotinylated, binds to Tumor M2-PK during the next incubation. Both monoclonal antibodies against Tumor M2-PK specifically react with Tumor M2-PK (dimeric form of M2-PK) and do not cross-react with the other isoforms of pyruvate kinase (type L, R, M1 and tetrameric M2-PK).

There was a highly significant difference between tumor patients and controls. At a cutoff level of 4 UmL-1 the sensitivity was calculated to be 73% and the specificity as 78%. The intra-assay variance was evaluated by 18-fold determination of five samples (5–66 UmL-1), giving an average coefficient of variance (CV) of 7.9% (3.5%–13.6%). The interassay variance was calculated with five samples between 4 and 73 UmL-1, tested on 10 different days. The average CV was 7.3% (3.8%–12.6%).

Robert Souhami, CBE, FMedSci, Director of Policy and Communication for Cancer Research UK, said, “There is currently much interest in this area of investigation. We hope that enzymes such as this one will eventually offer not only useful screening tools, but also an effective method of monitoring bowel cancer patients in remission, so that any return of disease can be quickly detected and acted upon.”

Related Links:

Giessen University Hospital 
ScheBo Biotech AG 


Gold Member
Fully Automated Cell Density/Viability Analyzer
BioProfile FAST CDV
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Immunoassays and Calibrators
QMS Tacrolimus Immunoassays
New
Centrifuge
Hematocrit Centrifuge 7511M4

Print article

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel
Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.