Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

"Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and deaths from cancer worldwide are projected to continue rising, with an estimated 12 million deaths in 2030. Cancer occurs when cells in a part of the body begin to grow out of control. It develops very rapidly, and early diagnosis offers a greater chance of successful treatment and a higher survival rate. Biomarkers are good potential tools for early diagnosis. The main hypothesis of this study is that the levels of certain metabolites present in human urine can indicate the current or future behavior of cancer. Therefore, these studies focused on metabolomics biomarker analysis in urine. Eight pteridine molecules were analyzed using a house-built, high-performance capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection (HPCE-LIF) in the first study. The results showed that 5 pteridine molecules were elevated in cancer compared to non-cancer urine samples. The second study investigated the levels of proline, kynurenine, uracil, and glycerol-3-phosphate in 126 patients with genitourinary malignancies (63 prostate cancers & 63 bladder cancers) and compared them to 68 normal samples using a validated LC/MS/MS method. Statistical analysis showed that the above biomarkers were not reliable enough for prostate cancer detection or for differentiating the aggressiveness of prostate cancer. The third study describes a validated, reliable, fast, and simple HPLC-MS/MS method to simultaneously separate and detect potential urinary bladder cancer biomarkers such as taurine, L-phenylalanine, hippuric acid and creatinine in urine samples. The final paper is a review article that discusses the applications of different LC-MS/MS and CE-MS techniques in prostate biomarker discovery"--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Ma, Yinfa

Committee Member(s)

Whitefield, Philip D.
Nam, Paul Ki-souk
Winiarz, Jeffrey G.
Westenberg, David J.

Department(s)

Chemistry

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Chemistry

Sponsor(s)

Foundation of Chemical Research
Missouri Research Board
Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

2012

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

  • Investigation of urinary pteridine levels as potential biomarkers for non-invasive diagnosis of cancer
  • Investigation of urinary metabolites as potential biomarkers for prostate cancer detection
  • Quantitative determination of taurine and related biomarkers in urine by liquidchromatography- tandem mass spectrometry
  • Biomarker analysis in prostate cancer using LC-MS and CE-MS (Review Article)

Pagination

xii, 114 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Rights

© 2012 Sanjeewa Bandara Gamagedara, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Tumor markers
Cancer -- Diagnosis
Pteridines -- Testing

Thesis Number

T 10551

Print OCLC #

903536635

Electronic OCLC #

904020592

Included in

Chemistry Commons

Share

 
COinS