Executive Summary : | Prostate cancer is the second leading cancer among men in India and a leading cause of global deaths. Early detection can reduce casualties and even help patients outlive the disease. The initial screening involves quantification of prostate specific antigen (PSA), which is usually less than 4 ng/mL. However, PSA levels may increase as men age due to unrelated issues like benign prostate hyperplasia and prostatitis, leading to two-thirds of unnecessary prostate biopsies. In 20-30% of cases, PSA levels do not increase beyond 4 ng/mL even after the tumor onset. A cluster of RNAs and some oncogenes have been identified as more specific markers for prostate cancer. Detecting these RNAs and oncogenes along with PSA could offer a promising alternative to detect cancer more specifically at early stages of the disease. Researchers could identify markers that discriminate between benign and malignant cases and low-grade and high-grade prostate tumors. Some of these markers are secreted in urine, making sample collection and detection easy, non-invasive, and simple. Other detection methods like mass spectrometry, immunoassay-based techniques, RT-PCR, and fluorescence in-situ hybridization have limitations such as being lab-intensive, bulky, time-consuming, and requiring skilled expertise. This project aims to develop a multi-marker electronic kit to detect PSA, SchLAP1, PCA3, PCAT14, and TMPRSS2:ERG, five markers of prostate cancer found in urine samples of patients. A prototype of the array of five biosensors will be developed and tested extensively with pure protein/RNA strands in lab and urine samples from patients reporting to KLEs Hospital, Belagavi, Karnataka, India. |