Upregulation of humanized HPRT housekeeping gene in malignant tumors hinders use as an endogenous control

Authors

Abigail Felsted, Brigham Young University
Kim O'Neill, Brigham Young University

Keywords

humanized hPRT housekeeping gene, malignant tumors, endogenous control

College

Life Sciences

Department

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Abstract

Our lab focuses on developing immunological techniques for diagnosing and treating cancer in a less invasive manner than current methods employ. New unique biomarkers are constantly needed to identify cancer in early stages in order to decrease mortality rates. When researching and publishing such biomarkers, many scientists use housekeeping genes such as glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) as positive controls. It is expected that housekeeping genes are expressed in all cells and have relatively consistent expression in all tissues both normal and malignant. As a member of the purine salvage pathway, HPRT recycles 90% of the free guanine and inosine nucleotides in the body. Because of it’s major role in the cell cycle we predicted that it may have differential expression in a state of rapid proliferation, such as cancer.

Recommended Citation

Felsted, Abigail and O'Neill, Kim (2018) "Upregulation of humanized HPRT housekeeping gene in malignant tumors hinders use as an endogenous control," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2018: Iss. 1, Article 156.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2018/iss1/156