[Oncoproteins and anti-oncoproteins in blood serum as biomarkers of early health effects induced by occupational and environmental carcinogens].
Over a whole life-span a genetic machinery of human cells is exposed to carcinogenic effect of various chemical, physical and biological factors leading to cellular changes in the genome like point mutation and translocation or amplification of genes. Together with growing an ageing of the human organism, the number and heterogeneity of mutated cells increase. Thus, the presence or absence of the neoplastic process may depend on the length of life, efficiency of the immunological system, cumulation of adverse affects of environmental factors or inherited susceptibility to a disease. There is no doubt that neoplasms which develop due to inheritance of different genetic defects or due to direct environmental effect progress in line with similar mutations, resulting finally in the genome destabilisation and disturbances in the balance between proliferation and differentiation processes. The knowledge as to how far environmental carcinogens affect cellular genome is still limited. Nevertheless, data collected to date help to understand the mechanisms by which environmental carcinogens may initiate the process of transforming normal cells into neoplastic ones. It is most likely that activation of some oncoproteins and deactivation of some suppressive genes and related qualitative and quantitative changes in oncoproteins and anti-oncoproteins participating in the growth control and cellular division, are the essential mechanisms which are involved in this process. The discovery that activation of oncoproteins and related emergence of oncoprotein in cells, increased in the number of changed, can be monitored in easily available biological fluids, such as blood or urine, has become of great importance for occupational medicine and environmental health. That has provided new diagnostic measures for evaluating carcinogenic effects of the working and living environments. The fact, that the emergence of oncoproteins in biological fluids may precede by many months or even years clinical manifestations of neoplastic disease should greatly contribute to undertaking more effective preventive measures.
Lutz
W
W
Zakładu Diagnostyki Laboratoryjnej Instytutu Medycyny Pracy, Lodzi.
Krajewska
B
B
D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001826:Body Fluids / Q000737:chemistry; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D015513:Oncogene Proteins / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology
D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002273:Carcinogens; D015513:Oncogene Proteins