Carbonic anhydrases: hematologic relevance and a biosensing perspective

Carbonic anhydrases were first identified in red blood cells and have been thus traditionally addressed in a hematological context. However, recently there has been a shift of research interest to therapeutic areas, notably in solid cancers, relegating the impact of carbonic anhydrase function and pathological dysfunction in blood related physiology to secondary importance. This review addresses this paradigm and emphasizes the potential impact of recent studies on blood related carbonic anhydrase isotype expression and modulation in diverse areas such as physiology and pathology, biosensing, their use as biomarkers, and in the development of synthetic blood. A special emphasis is placed on reviewing new dynamic and quantitative studies that allow for the efficient tracking and quantitation of various carbonic anhydrase isozymes within the blood and more generally within the human body, that give new perspectives on the biochemical and physiological role of blood associated carbonic anhydrase in health and pathology.