The Biology of Circulating Nucleic Acids in Plasma and Serum (CNAPS)

Abstract

Although nucleic acids have been known to circulate in the blood since1948, their biology has been studied only since the 1960s. This chaptercontains discussion of (a) the presence of DNA and RNA circulating inhuman plasma and serum from both healthy individuals and patients, (b)the amounts of DNA/RNA present together with the variables affectingthese amounts, (c) possible sources of the DNA/RNA in blood, and (d) theability of the circulating nucleic acids to enter other cells and tomodify the biology of the recipient cells. The relationship of the DNAfrom cancer patients is considered with respect to the formation ofmetastases.