As a pioneer in the field of antibody discovery, our scientists at Creative Biolabs have developed a novel and comprehensive platform for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) antibody discovery. With years of experience, we are confident in offering high-quality and cost-effective services to our clients all over the world.
Folate Receptor 1 (FOLR1)
Folate receptor alpha (FRA) is a 38-40 kDa molecule encoded by the FOLR1 gene in humans. The FOLR1 gene is composed of 7 exons, in which exons 1-4 encode the 5’ UTR and exons 4-7 encode the open reading frame. Folic acid is the essential component in DNA synthesis, replication and repair, protein synthesis and methylation reactions. As a member of the folate receptor (FOLR) family, FRA presents high affinity for folic acid and its derivatives. FRA is anchored to cell membranes through a glycosylphosphatidylinositol moiety and mediate delivery of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate to the interior of cells. Overexpression of FRA has been detected in various cancer types which including lung, uterine, breast carcinoma, ovarian, endometrial, pleural mesothelioma, and high-grade osteosarcoma.
Fig.1 Model depicting the possible routes of folic acid uptake into neuroepithelial cells. (Kur, E., Mecklenburg, N., 2014)
FOLR1 Marker of Ovarian Cancer
High levels of soluble FRA can be detected in the serum of patients who have malignant ovarian tumors, but no or marginally increased sFRA levels can be observed in benign and borderline tumors. In addition, we proved that sFRA correlates with its local tumor FRA expression and plays an important role in FRA-targeted therapy for patient selection and treatment monitoring. Some studies have shown that FOLR1 might be useful as a therapeutic application to improve sensitivity to cisplatin treatment. By the way, it has been reported that type I and type II ovarian cancers show different behavior in terms of clinical outcome and platinum sensitivity and the subset of strong FOLR1-expressing tumors may benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy in type I cancers. In summary, the sFRA present great potential to be served as a diagnostic marker for ovarian cancer.
Fig.2 Ovarian tissues expression of the FOLR1 protein. (Huang, M J., 2018)
Ovarian cancer is a serious malignancy with high mortality because of difficulties in detection, diagnosis, and treatment. As IVD antibodies present great potential for disease diagnosis, Creative Biolabs has built a novel platform for IVD antibody development against the FOLR1 marker. Our services can be tailor-designed to meet our customers’ specific requirements.
In addition, Creative Biolabs provides one-stop diagnostic immunoassay development services, including feasibility analysis, assay design, assay protocol establishment, validation, and production. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us for more information.
References
For Research Use Only.
