Early detection of prostate cancer improves patient outcomes but this effort is currently hampered by the lack of a sufficiently specific and sensitive test for the disease. The current test for prostate cancer measures prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Higher amounts of PSA can indicate the presence of prostate cancer. However, PSA levels are also raised in benign disease, leading to potentially unnecessary investigative procedures. In addition, current tests can miss the most aggressive type of prostate cancer.
Work has shown that PSA can be modified by the addition of sugars (glycosylation). Importantly, different types of sugars on PSA have been associated with different prostate diseases and so their analysis may more precisely diagnose prostate cancer.
Building on an OxCODE Funding Scheme award, a team led by Dr Pengfei Li and Dr Jonathan Wojciechowski from Professor Dame Molly Stevens’ lab (Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics) have now received funding from Cancer Research UK to develop a method for studying PSA sugars in blood samples. First, the team will develop a mild, chemical-free approach to selectively capture and release different forms of PSA from blood samples using light and nanotechnology. This approach will provide a cost-effective, simple, and minimally invasive way to accurately profile PSA sugars. Second, the team will design a sensitive fluorescent assay for detecting alterations in PSA sugars, with the goal of translating it into a clinically applicable test.
By the end of the award, the team hopes to have generated sufficient proof-of-concept data to seek further funding to study PSA sugars in larger groups of people.