abstract |
Methods of diagnosis or of quantitation of pathological conditions comprise conducting an immunoassay to measure neo-epitope containing protein fragments naturally present in a bioflui sample, and associating an elevation of said measure in said patient above a normal level with the presence or extent of pathology. The immunoassay is conducted by a method comprising: contacting protein fragments naturally present in said sample with an immunological binding partner reactive with a neo-epitope formed by cleavage of a protein by a proteinase and measuring the extent of binding of peptide fragments to said immunological binding partner to measure therein protein fragments comprising said neo-epitope. Neo-epitopes from, collagen type I, collagen type III, collagen type IV, collagen type V, collagen type VI, elastin, biglycan, decorin, lumican, versican, C-reactive protein, ApoE and laminins are described. |