Cholesterol, biomarker molecules

The US National Institutes of Health defines biomarkers as molecules that can be objectively measured and evaluated as indicators of normal or disease processes and pharmacologic responses to therapeutic intervention [12]. A broader definition of biomarkers for cancer consist of any measurable or observable factors in a patient that indicate normal or disease-related biological processes or responses to therapy [13, 14]. These can include physical symptoms, mutated DNAs and RNAs, secreted proteins, cell death or proliferation, and semm concentrations of small molecules such as glucose or cholesterol. In this chapter, we focus on emerging nanoscience-based electrochemical methods to detect levels of proteins as biomarkers that can be used for detection and monitoring cancer [2, 6, 15]. 

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