Patents
The invention relates to a novel process for preparation of a biomarker specific for O-acetylated sialic acid and useful for the diagnosis, monitoring outcome of treatment and prediction of relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, said process comprising the steps of (I) separating serum from the blood of patients of acute lymphoblastic leukemia; (ii) separation of low molecular weight fractions and galactose binding proteins from the serum on affinity matrix; (iii) passing the galactose free protein fraction obtained in step (ii) over another affinity matrix to capture O-acetyl sialic acid specific protein fraction; (iv) eluting specific protein fraction with a buffer at alkaline pH in the range of 8.0-11.0 followed by immediate neutralization of the fraction; (v) passing O-acetyl sialic acid specific protein obtained in step (iv) over Agarose column to get O-acetyl sialic acid specific antibody and eluting the said antibody with an appropriate buffer at acidic pH, followed by immediate neutralization of the fraction and dialyzing the neutralized protein to get purified disease specific antibody as biomarker and a method of diagnosing, monitoring outcome of treatment and prediction of relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia using the biomarker obtained by the novel process.