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INNOSC Theranostics and
Pharmacological Sciences Biomarkers and drugs in Africa

can be objectively measured and evaluated as potential significantly enhance health outcomes. Incorporating
indicators of any normal or abnormal pathophysiological biomarker approaches into drug development processes
process or pharmacological response to a given treatment. could lead to faster approvals, lower development costs,
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They can include proteins, genes, or other types of and better outcomes for patients. By using biomarkers for
biomolecules. Biomarkers are essential for drug discovery, individualized treatment, researchers can identify patients
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development, and personalized healthcare because who are more likely to respond to specific medicinal
they provide information on diagnosis, prognosis, and products and tailor their treatment to meet individual
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therapeutic response. They also help identify possible needs. This approach will lead to increased treatment
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therapeutic targets, assess the efficacy and safety of options and improved patient care. In addition, biomarkers
pharmaceutical products, and facilitate monitoring of can identify individuals at higher risk for adverse reactions
disease progression and treatment outcomes. 2 to certain medicinal products, enabling more efficient and
effective treatments. A recent study on biomarkers for
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Biomarkers can be classified into several categories
such as safety, pharmacodynamic, therapeutic, prognostic, identifying bacterial versus non-bacterial febrile infections
in African children has yielded positive outcomes.
and diagnostic. The domains of cancer classification
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and biomarker discovery are increasingly utilizing Researchers found angiotensinogen (AGT) to be a
machine learning (ML) approaches, which facilitate the promising plasma protein biomarker that accurately
identification of novel biomarkers for personalized therapy identified bacterial infections in febrile children from
programs. Identifying potential targets and evaluating a low-income area in Kenya. Contrary to C-reactive
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their efficacy and safety are essential for the search and protein (CRP), AGT demonstrated superior performance
development of new drugs. It is crucial to eliminate certain in differentiating invasive bacterial infections from
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barriers and restrictions in traditional drug development febrile malaria episodes and in distinguishing bacterial
approaches, such as the need to identify new risk factors, infections from those caused by viruses. The Royal
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initial diagnostic indicators, or alternative therapeutic Marsden Hospital (RMH) score has proven effective in
methods. Conventional drug development procedures various cancers, such as colorectal cancer (CRC), sarcoma,
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often encounter difficulties in addressing safety and and non-small-cell lung cancer. It serves as a valuable
efficacy challenges, such as significant drug accumulation biomarker for both clinical trial participants and as a
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in organs beyond the target or inadequate accumulation at prognostic marker in real-world contexts. The baseline
target sites during the later phases of this process. Using RMH score independently predicts OS and progression-
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biomarkers in the development of medicinal products free survival (PFS) in patients with extensive-stage small-
offers several advantages. First, biomarkers accelerate the cell lung cancer, being the sole independent prognostic
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development of new medicines by providing unbiased factor for PFS. A large cohort study involving over 100,000
information on normal biological processes, diseases, real-world patients confirmed a shorter OS in those with
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and pharmacological responses to treatment. These high RMH scores. These results underscore the RMH
biomarkers can optimize clinical benefits through specific score’s potential as a prognostic tool for both clinical trial
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therapies by supporting the co-development of diagnostics selection and real-world clinical applications. Hearing loss
and identifying responsive populations. 5 linked to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment
is generally reversible in melanoma patients and is often
Biomarker research has advanced significantly in accompanied by other immune-related adverse events.
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several areas, including cancer detection, chronic pain, It also correlates with a high response rate to ICIs. As
and optical biosensors. UBE2C, a gene that is differentially ICIs are increasingly used in earlier treatment stages and
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expressed in 28 types of cancer, plays a crucial role in adjuvant settings, the number of survivors experiencing
both overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival for ICI-related hearing loss is expected to increase. In this
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patients with many of these cancers. Moreover, assessing review, we aimed to explore and evaluate the utilization,
UBE2C’s diagnostic value and its correlation with various challenges, and prospects of biomarkers in enhancing drug
immune-related signatures could establish it as a reliable development in Africa.
biomarker for cancer diagnosis. UBE2C may also serve as
a therapeutic gene that enhances treatment responses and 2. Methods
OS for cancer patients, making it a promising target for
future cancer drugs. Significant progress has been made in 2.1. Literature search
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the field of cancer diagnostics, including the development A comprehensive literature search of many key databases,
of robust, reliable, and cost-effective cancer diagnostic including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, was
tools. Improving methods for detecting biomarkers could conducted for this narrative review. Search terms included
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Volume 7 Issue 4 (2024) 2 doi: 10.36922/itps.3656