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With the development of bioscience, biomarkers are widely used in medicine. Biomarkers are indicators that can judge the occurrence, development and prognosis of diseases. They can be used for the diagnosis and classification of diseases, monitoring the disease development and severity, testing the effect of clinical treatment, predicting an individual’s risk of disease and the screening of high-risk groups. The selection of biomarkers requires strict clinical validation and the feasibility of using biomarkers in specific clinical situations. Nowadays the biomarker development has made the application gradually change from simplification to combination. The combined application of biomarkers and other detection methods is conducive to the early, rapid and accurate diagnosis of diseases, thus providing a basis for clinical treatment.

Biomarkers are powerful tools for precision medicine implementation. It covers a wide range of types and plays an important role in medical diagnosis. Here we will introduce some biomarkers that are widely used in various fields:

1. H-FABP biomarker

H-FABP (heart-type fatty acid binding protein) is a highly sensitive early marker of myocardial ischemia, which can be detected within 30 minutes after an ischemic attack. H-FABP mainly exists in myocardial cells and has myocardial specificity. It is involved in the absorption, metabolism and transport of fatty acids in myocardial cells, as well as the differentiation and growth of myocardial cells. The amount of h-FABP in blood is very small among normal people. When the myocardial cells are damaged or necrotic, h-FABP can be released into the blood quickly and in large quantities, leading to a rapid increase in blood content. As h-FABP biomarker shows early and high specificity in blood after myocardial injury, it has become one of the biomarkers for myocardial injury concerned at home and abroad in recent years.

2. BNP marker

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), also known as b-type natriuretic peptide, is another member of natriuretic peptide system after cardiac natriuretic peptide (ANP). BNP has important pathophysiological significance. It can promote the excretion of sodium and urine, has strong vasodilatory effect, and can fight the vasoconstriction effect of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Like ANP, BNP is a major endocrine system in human body to resist capacity overload and hypertension. Cardiac dysfunction can greatly activate the natriuretic peptide system, and increased ventricular load leads to BNP release. It can bind receptors on the surface of target cells and is an important marker of cardiovascular biology. And heart failure, especially in its early stages, is currently difficult to diagnose. In addition, the commonly used detection methods include echocardiography, radionuclide imaging and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, but these examination methods are prone to false positive, and the repeatability is not ideal. As one of the important myocardial markers for the diagnosis of heart failure, the majority of researchers are quite interested in BNP marker.

3. AFP marker

AFP marker (alpha fetoprotein marker) is a glycoprotein, which belongs to the albumin family and is mainly synthesized by fetal hepatocytes and yolk sac. Alpha fetoprotein is closely related to the occurrence and development of liver cancer and a variety of tumors. It can show high concentration in a variety of tumors and can be used as a positive indicator for a variety of tumors. AFP is the most sensitive and specific indicator for early diagnosis of primary liver cancer, which is suitable for large-scale census. If the AFP value of adult blood rises, it indicates the possibility of liver cancer. AFP level reflects the size of tumor to a certain extent, and its dynamic change is related to the disease condition to a certain extent. It is a sensitive indicator to show the treatment effect and prognosis. Currently, it is mainly used as a serum marker of primary liver cancer in clinical practice for the diagnosis and efficacy monitoring of primary liver cancer.

4. Ca 125 marker

CA125 is a glycoprotein detected from epithelial ovarian cancer antigen that can be bound by monoclonal antibody 0C125. It is derived from the somatic epithelium of embryonic development and does not exist in normal ovarian tissue. Therefore, CA125 is most commonly found in the serum of patients with epithelial ovarian tumor (serous tumor). Ca 125 marker is mainly used to assist in the diagnosis of malignant serous ovarian cancer, and it is also an indicator for the observation of the efficacy of ovarian cancer after surgery and chemotherapy, which can be observed continuously and dynamically.

At present, high-throughput omics technology has been widely used in the process R&D of biomarkers. There are challenges in applying high-throughput technology to biomarkers, but such studies are still promising. With the progress of detection technology, the introduction of more ideal statistical analysis methods or algorithms, the use of larger and more comprehensive case samples and the deepening of people’s understanding of the details of life activities, more and more ideal biomarkers will be found and applied in clinical practice.