Wong Blenda C K, Lo Y M Dennis
Department of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories.
Expert Rev Mol Diagn. 2003 Nov;3(6):785-97. doi: 10.1586/14737159.3.6.785.
The recent interest in plasma nucleic acids has opened up many new promising possibilities for the noninvasive detection and monitoring of a variety of diseases. The discovery of tumor-derived DNA in the plasma of cancer patients has provided an alternative method for cancer detection, monitoring and prognostication, whereas the presence of fetal DNA in maternal plasma has revealed significant clinical potential for the prenatal diagnosis of fetal genetic diseases and pregnancy-associated complications. Further applications have been reported in transplantation, traumatology and acute medicine. Extending beyond plasma DNA, a new field of investigation has also been developed in the analysis of plasma RNA, which holds promise for noninvasive gene expression profiling. Biologically, future work will focus on the elucidation of the origin and clearance of circulating DNA, as well as the unexpected stability of circulating RNA.
近期对血浆核酸的关注为多种疾病的无创检测和监测开辟了许多新的、有前景的可能性。在癌症患者血浆中发现肿瘤来源的DNA，为癌症检测、监测和预后评估提供了一种替代方法；而母体血浆中胎儿DNA的存在，揭示了在胎儿遗传疾病和妊娠相关并发症的产前诊断方面的巨大临床潜力。在移植、创伤学和急性医学领域也有进一步应用的报道。除了血浆DNA，在血浆RNA分析方面也开拓了一个新的研究领域，这有望实现无创基因表达谱分析。从生物学角度来看，未来的工作将集中在阐明循环DNA的来源和清除机制，以及循环RNA出人意料的稳定性。
