High performance liquid chromatography with high sensitivity laser-induced fluorescence detection is used to study the protein profiles of serum samples from healthy volunteers and cervical cancer subjects. The protein profiles are subjected to principal component analysis (PCA). PCA shows that the large number of chromatograms of a given class of serum samples--say normal/malignant--can be expressed in terms of a small number of factors (principal components). Three parameters--scores of the factors, squared residuals, and Mahalanobis distance--are derived from PCA. The parameters are observed to have a narrow range for protein profiles of standard calibration sets formed from groups of clinically confirmed normal/malignant classes. Limit tests using match/no match of the parameters of any test sample with parameters derived for the standard calibration sets give very good discrimination between malignant and normal samples with high sensitivity (approximately 100%) aand specificity (approximately 94%).

The paper attempts to critically engage with the idea of integrative medicine as a marker of pharmaceuticalization of Ayurveda in the recent decades. It examines what it means to say ‘integrative’ medicine using the metaphor of language from philosophy of science. Drawing upon fieldwork with Ayurveda practitioners, the paper also discusses the ramifications of integrative medicine in the current scenario in which there is no organizational parity between Ayurveda and biomedicine. The paper calls for a focus on Ayurveda for public health rather than the global health market.

Optical methods and proteomics investigations are becoming promising approaches for early detection of many diseases, which remain clinically silent for long periods. We have used efficient High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) separation combined with highly sensitive laser induced fluorescence detection of proteins present in clinical samples for diagnostic applications in cervical cancer. The protein profile and the fluorescence of individual proteins were simultaneously recorded using our HPLC-LIF system. Protein profiles (Chromatogram) of serum from normal male and female volunteers with and without tobacco habits, and malignant serum samples were studied. Protein profiles were also recorded for lysates of exfoliated cells collected from Pap smear of normal and cancer patients. The protein profile patterns were subjected to Principal component Analysis. Discrimination of normal and malignant samples were achieved with very high sensitivity and specificity.

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