Abstract

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a fatal disease mostly associated with asbestos exposure as a key risk factor and difficult to detect by non-invasive methods. This study aimed to use recombinant fragments of the megakaryocyte potentiating factor (MPF) and develop MPF ELISAs to evaluate the performance of each polypeptide as a biomarker in MM patients9 plasma. Three polypeptides spanning the MPF region (MPF1-148, MPF34-288, MPF254-400) were produced in E.coli as maltose-binding protein hybrids. After factor Xa digest and purification the polypeptides were used for the production of rabbit antibodies and the development of ELISAs. Forty-one MM patients with known histological subtype before tumor-specific treatment and 70 asbestos-exposed individuals with no evidence of mesothelioma or other cancers were matched according to age, gender, and smoking habits. Plasma of all subjects was tested in the 3 newly developed polyclonal-antibody-based ELISAs and in a commercial mesothelin assay (MESOMARK™). The MPF ELISA based on the MPF34-288 fragment (MPF54) displayed significantly (p=0.0002) higher values in patients than in the controls (median 44.03 ng/ml versus 24.13 ng/ml, resp.). The mesothelin assay confirmed differences between groups (p

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