Methods for detecting biomarkers secreted from specific cells

Researchers at Stanford have developed a method to tag and identify disease associated proteins for the development of prognostic or diagnostic biomarkers. Biomarker discovery is foundational to the effective treatment and management of numerous diseases. Proteins secreted from pathological cells and tissues likely differ substantially from those of normal host cells. Thus, identification of proteins secreted specifically from pathological cells and tissues would increase disease diagnosis sensitivity and specificity. Unfortunately, current technologies are unable to discriminate between host- and pathology-secreted proteins. To overcome this limitation the inventors have developed new tools for mammalian, residue- specific, bioorthogonal chemistry which allow the specific tagging of proteins secreted from pathological cells into the blood. The tagged proteins can then be selectively enriched and identified. This technology enables the identification of new clinically useful predictive biomarkers for earlier diagnosis of diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.

Stage of Research
The inventors have used this technology to label the melanoma tumor proteome and plasma secretome in an immunocompetent mouse melanoma model.