Study of Metallothionein Levels in the Serum of Patients with Malignant Tumour

Abstract

Metallothionein (MT) is a low molecular weight intracellular protein, the primary function of which is to maintain the homeostasis of heavy metals in living organisms. Only a few research has been carried on the topic molecular mechanism of MT. Recent research points to its significant relationship to carcinogenesis, spontaneous mutagenesis, and the effectiveness of antitumor drugs. Increased level of MT is studied as a potential indicator of increased metabolic activity in cancer. Electrochemical methods are a suitable analytical tool for MT detection. Temperature-denatured blood serum samples of patients diagnosed with cancer were studied using electrochemical analysis (Brdička's reaction). The obtained voltammograms were evaluated as the area under the curve (AUC response). To compare normal and abnormal MT levels, control serum of healthy probands (n = 38) with an average MT amount of 2.2 µg L–1, median 2.1 µg L–1 was used. In all evaluated blood serum samples of cancer patients (n = 228), the average amount of MT was 22.7 µg L–1, and the median was 18.1 µg L–1. The difference (10-fold) between groups was highly statistically significant. The data obtained from the pilot experiment suggest that the levels of thiol compounds such as MT may have clinical potential in cancer patients.