New! Journal Club slides (updated 10.7.2017)

Read the the key findings of our study and check the Journal Club slides of the article here.

Cardiac troponin T, a sensitive biomarker of acute myocardial infarction, is mainly present as a 29 kDa fragment in serum samples while in plasma samples the main form is the full-sized molecule (approximately 35 kDa). In previous studies, µ-calpain has been suggested to be responsible for this degradation. However, µ-calpain is a cytosolic protease and it is unclear if it could retain its activity in human serum.

In the article published in the June issue of Clinical Chemistry, our researchers investigated in more detail the proteolytic degradation of cTnT. The results suggest that the 29 kDa fragment present in serum samples is formed during the sample preparation and it is caused by the cleavage of cTnT by thrombin, a serine protease involved in the coagulation cascade.

The thrombin-mediated degradation should be taken into account when developing new assays for the detection of cTnT, a sensitive marker of acute myocardial infarction similar to cardiac troponin I.

Katrukha IA, Kogan AE, Vylegzhanina AV, Serebryakova MV, Koshkina EV, Bereznikova AV, Katrukha AG. Thrombin-Mediated Degradation of Human Cardiac Troponin T. Clin Chem. 2017 Jun;63(6):1094-1100.

The article was also discussed in the editorials of the same issue of Clinical Chemistry:
Bodor GS. Cardiac Troponins: Molecules of Many Surprises. Clin Chem. 2017 Jun;63(6):1059-1060.