Current diagnosis of endometriosis is not satisfactory. At present this disease can be diagnosed unequivocally only with surgery and there are no reliable non-invasive methods. The invention is aiming at 1) non-invasive metabolomics profiling of human body fluids; 2) early detection of endometriosis; 3) increased specificity of detection. Endometriosis is frequent gynecological disorder, characterized by the presence of endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity. It affects an estimated 176 million women worldwide and is one of the most common diseases, more frequent than cancer and diabetes. The estimated prevalence is 6-10% in the general female population and 35-50% in women with pain infertility of both. Establishing a correct diagnosis of endometriosis is often problematic, because the presenting symptoms are nonspecific and associated with number of different conditions. The standard for diagnosis of endometriosis is surgical visual inspection of the pelvic organs. Thus it can take up to 12 years before women are diagnosed and receive appropriate treatment. An accurate blood or urine test could avoid the need for and invasive procedure.
F.32 International patent
COBISS.SI-ID: 29981657P.I. was an invited speaker at the Wroclaw Seminar on Nuclear Receptors where she introduced estrogen receptors ESR1 and ESR2, their structural and functional domains, their classical and non-classical mechanisms of action (including non-genomic signaling, ligand independent action) and regulation of ER cellular levels. She then presented the roles of estrogens in gynecological diseases and the results of expression analysis of ESR1 and ESR2 by real-time PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry in endometrial cancer and endometriosis. She concluded that both receptors represent biomarkers as well as drug targets thus detailed understanding of their action in gynecological diseases is of paramount importance for better treatment of these two diseases.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 30125529Since 1.1. 2009 P.I. is a member of the Editorial board of the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with I.F. 3,053.
C.06 Editorial board membership
COBISS.SI-ID: 527636