Lui Yanni Y N, Dennis Y M L
Department of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR.
Clin Chem Lab Med. 2002 Oct;40(10):962-8. doi: 10.1515/CCLM.2002.169.
The recent studies in circulating nucleic acids have brought about a new dimension to medical diagnostics. In oncology, various tumor-associated molecular alterations have been detected in the plasma/serum of cancer patients. These findings have important implications for the diagnosis, prognostication and monitoring of many types of malignancies. In pregnancy, the discovery of fetal DNA in maternal circulation has opened up a new source of fetal genetic material for noninvasive analysis for numerous fetal conditions and detection of certain pregnancy-associated disorders. The measurement of circulating DNA has also found potential application in the post-treatment monitoring of transplant patients and the assessment and prognostication of trauma patients. Although much attention has focused on circulating DNA, the knowledge of its biology is still at an early stage. For example, the origin and mechanisms of release of circulating DNA remain to be elucidated. The eventual clinical application of circulating DNA technology would also require the thorough elucidation of preanalytical factors that may affect its measurement in clinical laboratories.
最近关于循环核酸的研究为医学诊断带来了新的维度。在肿瘤学领域，已在癌症患者的血浆/血清中检测到各种与肿瘤相关的分子改变。这些发现对多种恶性肿瘤的诊断、预后评估和监测具有重要意义。在妊娠期间，母体循环中胎儿DNA的发现为众多胎儿疾病的无创分析以及某些妊娠相关疾病的检测开辟了新的胎儿遗传物质来源。循环DNA的检测在移植患者的治疗后监测以及创伤患者的评估和预后判断中也发现了潜在应用。尽管人们对循环DNA给予了很多关注，但其生物学知识仍处于早期阶段。例如，循环DNA的起源和释放机制仍有待阐明。循环DNA技术最终的临床应用还需要彻底阐明可能影响其在临床实验室检测的分析前因素。
