MUC1

· Precursors of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma o pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanIN) o larger intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) o mucinous cystic neoplasms · It has been proposed that PanIN lesions progress from the early PanIN-1A (flat epithelium with minimal atypia) and PanIN-1B (papillary epithelium with minimal atypia) to PanIN-2 (papillary epithelium with moderate atypia) to PanIN-3 (papillary epithelium with marked atypia), and eventually invasive adenocarcinomas. o Epithelium—any animal tissue that covers a surface, or lines a cavity or the like, and that, in addition, performs any of various secretory, transporting, or regulatory functions. o Atypia—clinical term for abnormality in a cell. · Although absent from normal ductal epithelium, PAM4-reactive MUC1 is abundantly present in the earliest stages of disease (i.e., PanIN-1A), and that its expression remains high in all PanIN stages. · Seems like Pam4 MAb is being used to detect MUC1? o MAb—monoclonal antibodies—antibody produced by a laboratory-grown cell clone, either of a hybridoma or a virus-transformed lymphocyte, that is more abundant and uniform than natural antibody and is able to bind specifically to a single site on almost any chosen antigen or reveal previously unknown antigen sites: used as an analytic tool in scientific research and medical diagnosis and potentially important in the treatment of certain diseases.
 * PAM4-ReactiveMUC1Is a Biomarker for Early Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma**

**DNA Aptamers Against the MUC1 Tumour Marker: Design of Aptamer–Antibody Sandwich ELISA for the Early Diagnosis of Epithelial Tumours** · MUC1 is a well-known tumour marker present in epithelial malignancies and is used in immunotherapeutic and diagnostic approaches. · We report the selection of DNA aptamers that bind with high affinity and selectivity an MUC1 recombinant protein containing five repeats of the variable tandem repeat region. · After ten rounds of in vitro selection and amplification, more than 90% of the pool of sequences consisted of target-binding molecules, which were cloned, sequenced and found to share no sequence consensus. · The binding properties of these aptamers were quantified using ELISA and surface plasmon resonance.