Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men. While prostate specific antigen (PSA) is currently the best biomarker available, its use has many limitations. This study investigates the biosynthesis, secretion and activation of PSA. PSA is secreted as a pro enzyme containing a seven amino acid activation peptide (APLILSR). Because APLILSR is removed extracellularly in vivo, the hypothesis was tested that it may be detected in the blood or urine. Our data indicates that APLILSR is filtered from the bloodstream by the kidney, and is detectable in the urine of patients with prostate cancer, but not controls.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal interstitial lung disease of unknown etiology. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of proteinases that regulate extracellular matrix turnover and are believed to contribute to IPF. For this reason, the hypothesis that levels of MMP activation peptides will increase in patients with IPF was tested. To test these hypotheses, urine from mice were collected and an ELISA was used to quantify MMP activation peptides. These experiments show that the activation peptides of MMP-2, MMP-7, MMP-8 and MMP-9 are increased in mice with pulmonary fibrosis compared to control mice. The data also showed that that the activation peptides of MMP-2, MMP-7, and MMP-9 are increased in the urine of human patients with IPF compared to healthy controls. These data suggest that urine detection of MMP activation peptides is feasible and correlates with disease.
Because urinary detection of the activation peptides of proteinases are indicative of proteinase activation in vivo, the new hypothesis that the accurate measurement of proteinase activation peptides will be relevant clinically arises, and that such measurements may aid in the diagnosis of disease and serve as a marker for following disease progression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-09182009-151608 |
| Date | 22 October 2009 |
| Creators | Voeghtly, Laura Marie |
| Contributors | Dr. Charleen T. Chu, M.D., Ph.D., Dr. Tim D. Oury M.D., Ph.D., Dr. Naftali Kaminski, M.D., Dr. Billy Day, Ph.D., Dr. Alan Wells, M.D., DMS. |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-09182009-151608/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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