KatCarney

Researchers seek early detection for hard-to-diagnose disease

April 10, 2007

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by infertility due to anovulation, abnormal secretion of androgens and other hormones, and insulin resistance. PCOS is the most common female endocrine disorder, affecting 4-7 percent of women in their reproductive years — the syndrome accounts for 75 percent of all anovulations. PCOS has staggering adverse physiological, psychological and financial consequences for women’s reproductive health.

With funding from the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (WID) seed grant program, UW–Madison scientists will now use their collective expertise to develop the first diagnostic test for PCOS.

The interdisciplinary nature of the work requires four equal principle investigators leading a team of 12 researchers. Leaders are Fariba Assadi-Porter, staff scientist of biochemistry; Hamid Eghbalnia, assistant scientist of biochemistry and mathematics; Michael Shortreed, associate scientist of chemistry; and Leah Whigham, associate scientist of obstetrics and gynecology. They will steer efforts to develop a novel “metabolic analysis” method to detect and statistically model changes in a subset of molecules within the body’s total pool of metabolites that have proven to be reliable, early indicators of PCOS.

The method will derive from measuring biomarkers in women as well as in rhesus monkeys with PCOS at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. These animals have been well characterized and studied during the past two decades by David Abbott, professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

“The idea is to use a nonhuman primate model of PCOS in parallel with human samples to develop a novel diagnostic test,” says Assadi-Porter. “With this, we will begin to analyze patient samples to develop the portrait of PCOS in humans. Our approach could be used to develop similar tests for a variety of other diseases.”

The strength of the team’s grant application was its description of a highly innovative and challenging approach that uses a combination of technologies and resources unique to UW–Madison. The researchers plan to use stable isotopes, NMR, MS and advanced mathematical computation, which are all centered around clinical and medical sciences with broad clinical applications. The investigators also established their project’s relevance to the WID mission of advancing knowledge, inventions, treatments, cures and economic development through their previous patents with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for several inventions related to this proposal.

The other team members are animal sciences professor Mark Cook, obstetrics and gynecology professor Steven Lindheim, biochemistry professor John Markley, zoology professor Warren Porter, chemistry professor Lloyd Smith, and researchers Daniel Butz and Marco Tonelli.

__________________