EXAMPLES OF GENERAL BIOMARKERS

Drugs From Discovery to Approval, Second Edition, By Rick Ng Copyright 2009 John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) Male 10mm/h Female 20mm/h 

Acid P-tase (acid phosphatase) Male 4.7 lU/L Female 3.7IU/L 

Nitrite Sediment RBC WBC Epithelial cells Casts Crystal Microorganisms Parasites Spermatozoa 0/LPF 

Specific gravity Gram stain Bence-Jones protein Paraguat test Porphobilinogen Myoglobin Pregnancy tset Fractional urinalysis 1.016-1.022 

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Amino acid residues are potential targets of free radical oxidation and nitration. Carbonyl derivatives of proteins may be formed by the interaction of protein amino acid side chains, mainly cysteine, histidine, and lysine residues with reactive aldehydes, such as HNE and ONE generated by peroxidation of PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids). Amino acid and peptide biomarkers of oxidative stress are typically focused on specific proteins related to disease pathology. For instance, the oxidation of histidine and methionine are typically discussed in (3-amyloid plaque formation and HNE-derived histidine adducts are the main focus of modifications on low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (An-nangudi et al., 2008). However, there are several specific examples of general biomarkers of oxidative stress that include endogenous histidine containing dipeptides such as carnosine and anserine as well as the very stable o,o -dityrosine. These will be discussed below. 

The formation of life and how to recognise it is the central problem in astrobiology. All searches for other life forms will be prejudiced horribly by the study of the only example we know to date - life on Earth. Despite attempts to classify the general roles of molecules in definitions of life as biomarkers, there have been many discussions of possible biomarkers, including ... 

An important caveat in interpreting chlorpyrifos metabolite concentrations in urine is that this metabolite (TCP) is widespread in the environment and thus can appear in urine as a result of direct intake as well as from conversion from a parent chemical (Lu et al. 2005 Wilson et al. 2003). For example, the concentration of TCP in foods can be greater than that of chlorypyrifos, and concentrations in house dust can be generally comparable (Morgan et al. 2005). Direct intake of TCP from environmental media makes extrapolation of urinary biomarker concentration to chlorpyrifos exposure dose uncertain. 

Figure 8 Various individual biomarkers have been used as age-dating compounds. A classic example of this is 18a(H)-01eanane, a compound associated with a higher plant input, more specifically an angiosperm source. Angiosperms generally are believed to have evolved at the end of the Cretaceous/Early Tertiary.

Some of the chapters are written to cover general topics, while other chapters cover a specific area of interest. For example, there is a chapter on metabolite identification as well as a chapter on UPLC. There was also an effort on my part to include newer areas of interest to drug metabolism scientists. As one example of a new topical area, a chapter on biomarkers has been added in this second edition. 

Array detectors, in general, clearly have an important role to play in personalization of medical care. A recent example of work in this field is the development of nanobiochips for multiplexed protein detection of three cancer biomarkers, namely, carcinoembiyonic antigen, cancer antigen 125, and Her-2INeu in serum and saliva specimens. ... 

The size and quality of the available database for an environmental pollutant will vary greatly across substances and will also vary within the four components of the typical risk assessment. The variety of adverse health risks of a substance may be qualitatively well known, for example, but dose—response relationships may be poorly quantifiable because of either limits of inadequate exposure measurement data or absence of good biomarkers of adverse effect or absence of information on the full span of the dose—response curve. Hazard characterization and dose—response relationships may both be understood as general descriptors, but case-specific or scenario-specific exposure data may be lacking, requiring judgment about alternative approaches (e.g., default values). 

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