Molecules of Disease and Their Detection Methods

Abstract

The birth and development of molecular biology is an important event and has become a leading discipline in the natural science. It drives the research of life science to a new stage and has produced vast knowledge in clinical sciences. Molecular diagnosis is based on the theory of molecular biology, and the studies include the changes of the existence, structure, or expression regulation of endogenous or exogenous biological macromolecules and macromolecular systems in human body using the techniques and methods of molecular biology, so as to provide information and decision-making basis for the prevention, prediction, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of diseases. The development of molecular biology can be roughly divided into three stages: In the 1950s, it was determined that protein is the main basic material of life, and DNA is the material basis of biological inheritance, which laid a theoretical foundation for the development of molecular biology. In the early 1970s, Watson and Crick proposed that DNA double helix structure and base complementary pairing are the basic ways of nucleic acid replication and genetic information transmission, laying the most important foundation for understanding the relationship between nucleic acid and protein and its role in life. After the 1970s, with the emergence of PCR technology, the launch of the human genome project, and the rapid development of high throughput sequencing technology and mass spectrometry technology, humans began to deeply understand the nature of life and make great strides in the field of molecular diagnosis. This chapter will introduce the main methods of molecular diagnosis, including nucleic acid detection and protein detection. It can be assured that molecular has a bright future, but the road will be difficult and tortuous.