Molecular biomarkers hold promise to advance the noninvasive diagnosis of male reproductive system disorders and facilitate the identification and management of these conditions through screening, early diagnosis and more accurate prognosis.
Seminal plasma has great potential as a proximal fluid for protein biomarker discovery and as a clinical sample for noninvasive diagnostics. The seminal plasma proteome contains thousands of proteins and includes a large number of tissue-specific proteins that might accurately indicate a pathological process in the tissue of origin. Potential protein biomarkers for male reproductive system disorders are more abundant in seminal plasma than in blood serum or urine, and, therefore, are more easily identified and quantified in semen by mass spectrometry and other techniques. These methods have enabled elaboration of the composition of the seminal plasma proteome and the tissue specificity of seminal plasma proteins. Strategies have been developed to discover protein biomarkers in seminal plasma through integrated 'omics' approaches. Biomarkers of male infertility and prostate cancer are now emerging, and it is evident that seminal plasma has the potential to complement other diagnostic tools available in urology clinics.
Written by:
Drabovich AP, Saraon P, Jarvi K, Diamandis EP. Are you the author?
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Center 60 Murray Street, Box 32, Room L6-201, Toronto, ON M5T 3L9, Canada; Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Medical Sciences Building, University of Toronto, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada; Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, 600 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M5G 1X5, Canada; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Center, 60 Murray Street, Box 32, Room L6-201, Toronto, ON M5T 3L9, Canada.
Reference: Nat Rev Urol. 2014 Apr 8. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1038/nrurol.2014.74
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24709963
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