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Dysregulation of ncRNAs in association with Neurodegenerative Disorders

Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, Cerebrovascular and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Etiology, Molecular Genetics & Pharmaceutical, mRNA, mRNA Therapeutics, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Neurological Diseases, RNA Biology, RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic, tagged Alzheimers Disease, neurodegenerative disorders, Neurological Disorders, Non-coding RNA, Parkinsons disease, RNA Biology, RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic on January 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Dysregulation of ncRNAs in association with Neurodegenerative Disorders

Curator: Amandeep Kaur

Research over the years has added evidences to the hypothesis of “RNA world” which explains the evolution of DNA and protein from a simple RNA molecule. Our understanding of RNA biology has dramatically changed over the last 50 years and rendered the scientists with the conclusion that apart from coding for protein synthesis, RNA also plays an important role in regulation of gene expression.

Figure: Overall Taxonomy of ncRNAs
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-019-0051-2

The universe of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) is transcending the margins of preconception and altered the traditional thought that the coding RNAs or messenger RNAs (mRNAs) are more prevalent in our cells. Research on the potential use of ncRNAs in therapeutic relevance increased greatly after the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) and provided important insights into our further understanding of etiology of complex disorders.

Figure: Atomic Structure of Non-coding RNA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-coding_RNA

Latest research on neurodegenerative disorders has shown the perturbed expression of ncRNAs which provides the functional association between neurodegeneration and ncRNAs dysfunction. Due to the diversity of functions and abundance of ncRNAs, they are classified into Housekeeping RNAs and Regulatory ncRNAs.

The best known classes of ncRNAs are the microRNAs (miRNAs) which are extensively studied and are of research focus. miRNAs are present in both intronic and exonic regions of matured RNA (mRNA) and are crucial for development of CNS. The reduction of Dicer-1, a miRNA biogenesis-related protein affects neural development and the elimination of Dicer in specifically dopaminergic neurons causes progressive degeneration of these neuronal cells in striatum of mice.

A new class of regulatory ncRNAs, tRNAs-derived fragments (tRFs) is superabundantly present in brain cells. tRFs are considered as risk factors in conditions of neural degeneration because of accumulation with aging. tRFs have heterogenous functions with regulation of gene expression at multiple layers including regulation of mRNA processing and translation, inducing the activity of silencing of target genes, controlling cell growth and differentiation processes.

The existence of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) was comfirmed by the ENCODE project. Numerous studies reported that approximately 40% of lncRNAs are involved in gene expression, imprinting and pluripotency regulation in the CNS. lncRNA H19 is of paramount significance in neural viability and contribute in epilepsy condition by activating glial cells. Other lncRNAs are highly bountiful in neurons including Evf2 and MALAT1 which play important function in regulating neural differentiation and synapse formation and development of dendritic cells respectively.

Recently, a review article in Nature mentioned about the complex mechanisms of ncRNAs contributing to neurodegenerative conditions. The ncRNA-mediated mechanisms of regulation are as follows:

Epigenetic regulation: Various lncRNAs such as BDNF-AS, TUG1, MEG3, NEAT1 and TUNA are differentially expressed in brain tissue and act as epigenetic regulators.
RNAi: RNA interference includes post-transcriptional repression by small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and binding of miRNAs to target genes. In a wide spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson disease, Huntington’s disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Fragile X syndrome, Frontotemporal dementia, and Spinocerebellar ataxia, have shown perturbed expression of miRNA.
Alternative splicing: Variation in splicing of transcripts of ncRNAs has shown adverse affects in neuropathology of degenerative diseases.
mRNA stability: The stability of mRNA may be affected by RNA-RNA duplex formation which leads to the degradation of sense mRNA or blocking the access to proteins involved in RNA turnover and modify the progression of neurodegenerative disorders.
Translational regulation: Numerous ncRNAs including BC200 directly control the translational process of transcripts of mRNAs and effect human brain of Alzheimer’s disease.
Molecular decoys: Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) dilute the expression of other RNAs by molecular trapping, also known as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) which hinder the normal functioning of RNAs. The ceRNAs proportion must be equivalent to the number of target miRNAs that can be sequestered by each ncRNAs in order to induce consequential de-repression of the target molecules.

Table: ncRNAs and related processes involved in neurodegenerative disorders
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn.2017.90

The unknown functions of numerous annotated ncRNAs may explain the underlying complexity in neurodegenerative disorders. The profiling of ncRNAs of patients suffering from neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions are required to outline the changes in ncRNAs and their role in specific regions of brain and cells. Analysis of Large-scale gene expression and functional studies of ncRNAs may contribute to our understanding of these diseases and their remarkable connections. Therefore, targeting ncRNAs may provide effective therapeutic perspective for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

References https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/rna-functions-352/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6035743/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7695195/ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13670-012-0023-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn.2017.90

Live Notes, Real Time Conference Coverage 2020 AACR Virtual Meeting April 28, 2020 Symposium: New Drugs on the Horizon Part 3 12:30-1:25 PM

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

New Drugs on the Horizon: Part 3
Introduction

Andrew J. Phillips, C4 Therapeutics

symposium brought by AACR CICR and had about 30 proposals for talks and chose three talks
unfortunately the networking event is not possible but hope to see you soon in good health

ABBV-184: A novel survivin specific T cell receptor/CD3 bispecific therapeutic that targets both solid tumor and hematological malignancies

Edward B Reilly
AbbVie Inc. @abbvie

T-cell receptors (TCR) can recognize the intracellular targets whereas antibodies only recognize the 25% of potential extracellular targets
survivin is expressed in multiple cancers and correlates with poor survival and prognosis
CD3 bispecific TCR to survivn (Ab to CD3 on T- cells and TCR to survivin on cancer cells presented in MHC Class A3)
ABBV184 effective in vivo in lung cancer models as single agent;
in humanized mouse tumor models CD3/survivin bispecific can recruit T cells into solid tumors; multiple immune cells CD4 and CD8 positive T cells were found to infiltrate into tumor
therapeutic window as measured by cytokine release assays in tumor vs. normal cells very wide (>25 fold)
ABBV184 does not bind platelets and has good in vivo safety profile
First- in human dose determination trial: used in vitro cancer cell assays to determine 1st human dose
looking at AML and lung cancer indications
phase 1 trial is underway for safety and efficacy and determine phase 2 dose
survivin has very few mutations so they are not worried about a changing epitope of their target TCR peptide of choice

The discovery of TNO155: A first in class SHP2 inhibitor

Matthew J. LaMarche
Novartis @Novartis

SHP2 is an intracellular phosphatase that is upstream of MEK ERK pathway; has an SH2 domain and PTP domain
knockdown of SHP2 inhibits tumor growth and colony formation in soft agar
55 TKIs there are very little phosphatase inhibitors; difficult to target the active catalytic site; inhibitors can be oxidized at the active site; so they tried to target the two domains and developed an allosteric inhibitor at binding site where three domains come together and stabilize it
they produced a number of chemical scaffolds that would bind and stabilize this allosteric site
block the redox reaction by blocking the cysteine in the binding site
lead compound had phototoxicity; used SAR analysis to improve affinity and reduce phototox effects
was very difficult to balance efficacy, binding properties, and tox by adjusting stuctures
TNO155 is their lead into trials
SHP2 expressed in T cells and they find good combo with I/O with uptick of CD8 cells
TNO155 is very selective no SHP1 inhibition; SHP2 can autoinhibit itself when three domains come together and stabilize; no cross reactivity with other phosphatases
they screened 1.5 million compounds and got low hit rate so that is why they needed to chemically engineer and improve on the classes they found as near hits

Closing Remarks

Xiaojing Wang
Genentech, Inc. @genentech

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Live Notes, Real Time Conference Coverage 2020 AACR Virtual Meeting April 28, 2020 Session on Early Detection and ctDNA 1:35 – 3:55 PM

Posted in BioBanking, BioIT: BioInformatics, BioIT: BioInformatics, NGS, Clinical & Translational, Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics, Clinical Genomics, Cancer Informatics, Breast Cancer - impalpable breast lesions, Cancer - General, Cancer and Current Therapeutics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Genomics, Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC), Computational Biology/Systems and Bioinformatics, interventional oncology, Liquid Biopsy Chip detects an array of metastatic cancer cell markers in blood, Scientific & Biotech Conferences: Press Coverage, tagged AACR, American Association for Cancer Research, breast cancer screening, Cancer screening, Clinical trial, Conference Coverage with Social Media, ctDNA, ctDNA Liquid Biopsy, liquid biopsy, real time conference coverage, TRACERx on April 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Live Notes, Real Time Conference Coverage 2020 AACR Virtual Meeting April 28, 2020 Session on Early Detection and ctDNA 1:35 – 3:55 PM

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

Introduction
Alberto Bardelli

circulating tumor DNA has been around but with NGS now we can have more specificity in analyzing ctDNA
interest lately in using liquid biopsy to gain insight on tumor heterogeneity versus single needle biopsy of the solid tumor
these talks will however be on ctDNA as a diagnostic and therapeutic monitoring modality

Prediction of cancer and tissue of origin in individuals with suspicion of cancer using a cell-free DNA multi-cancer early detection test
David Thiel

@MayoClinic

test has a specificity over 90% and intended to used along with guideline
The Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas Study (clinical trial NCT02889978) (CCGA) study divided into three substudies: highest performing assay, refining assay, validation of assays
methylation based assays worked better than sequencing (bisulfite sequencing)
used a machine learning algorithm to help refine assay
prediction was >90%; subgroup for high clinical suspicion of cancer
HCS sensitivity was 100% and specificity very high; but sensitivity on training set was 40% and results may have been confounded by including kidney cancer
TOO tissue of origin was predicted in greater than 99% in both training and validation sets

A first-of-its-kind prospective study of a multi-cancer blood test to screen and manage 10,000 women with no history of cancer

DETECT-A study: prospective interventional study; can multi blood test be used prospectively and can lead to a personalized care; can the screen be used to complement current therapy?
10,000 women aged 65-75; these women could not have previous cancer and conducted through Geisinger Health Network; multi test detects DNA and protein and standard of care screening
the study focused on safety so a committee was consulted on each case, and used a diagnostic PET-CT
blood test alone not good but combined with protein and CT scans much higher (5 fold increase) detection for breast cancer

Nickolas Papadopoulos

@HopkinsMedicine

Discussant
David Huntsman

there are mutiple opportunities yet at same time there are still challenges to utilize these cell free tests in therapeutic monitoring, diagnostic, and screening however sensitivities for some cancers are still too low to use in large scale screening however can supplement current screening guidelines
we have to ask about false positive rate and need to concentrate on prospective studies
we must consider how tests will be used, population health studies will need to show improved survival

Phylogenetic tracking and minimal residual disease detection using ctDNA in early-stage NSCLC: A lung TRACERx study
Chris Abbosh @ucl

TRACERx study in collaboration with Charles Swanton.
multiplex PCR to track 200 SNVs: correlate tumor tissue biopsy with ctDNA
spike in assay shows very good sensitivity and specificity for SNVs variants tracked, did over 400 TRACERx libraries
sensitivity increases when tracking more variants but specificity does go down a bit
tracking variants can show evidence of subclonal dynamics and evolution and copy number deletion events; they also show neoantigen editing or changing of their neoantigens
this assay can detect low variants in a reproducible manner

The TRACERx (TRAcking Cancer Evolution through therapy (Rx)) lung study is a multi-million pound research project taking place over nine years, which will transform our understanding of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and take a practical step towards an era of precision medicine. The study will uncover mechanisms of cancer evolution by analysing the intratumour heterogeneity in lung tumours from approximately 850 patients and tracking its evolutionary trajectory from diagnosis through to relapse. At £14 million, it’s the biggest single investment in lung cancer research by Cancer Research UK, and the start of a strategic UK-wide focus on the disease, aimed at making real progress for patients.

Led by Professor Charles Swanton at UCL, the study will bring together a network of experts from different disciplines to help integrate clinical and genomic data and identify patients who could benefit from trials of new, targeted treatments. In addition, it will use a whole suite of cutting edge analytical techniques on these patients’ tumour samples, giving unprecedented insight into the genomic landscape of primary and metastatic tumours and the impact of treatment upon this landscape.

In future, TRACERx will enable us to define how intratumour heterogeneity impacts upon cancer immunity throughout tumour evolution and therapy. Such studies will help define how the clinical evaluation of intratumour heterogeneity can inform patient stratification and the development of combinatorial therapies incorporating conventional, targeted and immune based therapeutics.

Intratumour heterogeneity is increasingly recognised as a major hurdle to achieve improvements in therapeutic outcome and biomarker validation. Intratumour genetic diversity provides a substrate for tumour adaptation and evolution. However, the evolutionary genomic landscape of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and how it changes through the disease course has not been studied in detail. TRACERx is a prospective observational study with the following objectives:

Primary Objectives

Define the relationship between intratumour heterogeneity and clinical outcome following surgery and adjuvant therapy (including relationships between intratumour heterogeneity and clinical disease stage and histological subtypes of NSCLC).
Establish the impact of adjuvant platinum-containing regimens upon intratumour heterogeneity in relapsed disease compared to primary resected tumour.

Key Secondary Objectives

Develop and validate an intratumour heterogeneity (ITH) ratio index as a prognostic and predictive biomarker in relation to disease-free survival and overall survival.
Infer a complete picture of NSCLC evolutionary dynamics – define drivers of genomic instability, metastatic progression and drug resistance by identifying and tracking the dynamics of somatic mutational heterogeneity, and chromosomal structural and numerical instability present in the primary tumour and at metastatic sites. Individual tumour phylogenetic tree analysis will:
- Establish the order of somatic events in relation to genomic instability onset and metastatic progression
- Decipher genetic “bottlenecking” events following metastasis and drug therapy
- Establish dynamics of tumour evolution during the disease course from early to late stage NSCLC.
Initiate a longitudinal biobank of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and circulating-free tumour DNA (cfDNA) to develop analytical methods for the early detection and monitoring of tumour evolution over time.
Develop a longitudinal tissue resource to serve as a platform to assess the relationship between genetic intratumour heterogeneity and the host immune response.
Define relationships between intratumour heterogeneity and targeted/cytotoxic therapeutic outcome.
Use a lung cancer specific gene panel in a certified Good Clinical Practice (GCP) laboratory environment to define clonally dominant disease drivers to address the role of clonal driver dominance in targeted therapeutic response and to guide stratification of lung cancer treatment and future clinical study inclusion (paired primary-metastatic site comparisons in at least 270 patients with relapsed disease).

Utility of longitudinal circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) modeling to predict RECIST-defined progression in first-line patients with epidermal growth factor receptor mutation-positive (EGFRm) advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Martin Johnson

Impact of the EML4-ALK fusion variant on the efficacy of lorlatinib in patients (pts) with ALK-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Todd Bauer

From an interview with Dr. Bauer at https://www.lungcancernews.org/2019/08/14/making-headway-with-lorlatinib/

Lorlatinib, a smallmolecule inhibitor of ALK and ROS1, was granted accelerated U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in November 2018 for patients with ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC whose disease has progressed on crizotinib and at least one other ALK inhibitor or whose disease has progressed on alectinib or ceritinib as the first ALK inhibitor therapy for metastatic disease. Todd M. Bauer, MD, a medical oncologist and senior investigator at Sarah Cannon Research Institute/Tennessee Oncology, PLLC, in Nashville, has been very involved with the development of lorlatinib since the beginning. In the following interview, Dr. Bauer discusses some of lorlatinib’s unique toxicities, as well as his first-hand experiences with the drug.

For further reading: Solomon B, Besse B, Bauer T, et al. Lorlatinib in Patients with ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer: results from a global phase 2 study. Lancet. 2018;19(12):P1654-1667.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Lorlatinib is a potent, brain-penetrant, third-generation inhibitor of ALK and ROS1 tyrosine kinases with broad coverage of ALK mutations. In a phase 1 study, activity was seen in patients with ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer, most of whom had CNS metastases and progression after ALK-directed therapy. We aimed to analyse the overall and intracranial antitumour activity of lorlatinib in patients with ALK-positive, advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

METHODS: In this phase 2 study, patients with histologically or cytologically ALK-positive or ROS1-positive, advanced, non-small-cell lung cancer, with or without CNS metastases, with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0, 1, or 2, and adequate end-organ function were eligible. Patients were enrolled into six different expansion cohorts (EXP1-6) on the basis of ALK and ROS1 status and previous therapy, and were given lorlatinib 100 mg orally once daily continuously in 21-day cycles. The primary endpoint was overall and intracranial tumour response by independent central review, assessed in pooled subgroups of ALK-positive patients. Analyses of activity and safety were based on the safety analysis set (ie, all patients who received at least one dose of lorlatinib) as assessed by independent central review. Patients with measurable CNS metastases at baseline by independent central review were included in the intracranial activity analyses. In this report, we present lorlatinib activity data for the ALK-positive patients (EXP1-5 only), and safety data for all treated patients (EXP1-6). This study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01970865.

FINDINGS: Between Sept 15, 2015, and Oct 3, 2016, 276 patients were enrolled: 30 who were ALK positive and treatment naive (EXP1); 59 who were ALK positive and received previous crizotinib without (n=27; EXP2) or with (n=32; EXP3A) previous chemotherapy; 28 who were ALK positive and received one previous non-crizotinib ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor, with or without chemotherapy (EXP3B); 112 who were ALK positive with two (n=66; EXP4) or three (n=46; EXP5) previous ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors with or without chemotherapy; and 47 who were ROS1 positive with any previous treatment (EXP6). One patient in EXP4 died before receiving lorlatinib and was excluded from the safety analysis set. In treatment-naive patients (EXP1), an objective response was achieved in 27 (90·0%; 95% CI 73·5-97·9) of 30 patients. Three patients in EXP1 had measurable baseline CNS lesions per independent central review, and objective intracranial responses were observed in two (66·7%; 95% CI 9·4-99·2). In ALK-positive patients with at least one previous ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EXP2-5), objective responses were achieved in 93 (47·0%; 39·9-54·2) of 198 patients and objective intracranial response in those with measurable baseline CNS lesions in 51 (63·0%; 51·5-73·4) of 81 patients. Objective response was achieved in 41 (69·5%; 95% CI 56·1-80·8) of 59 patients who had only received previous crizotinib (EXP2-3A), nine (32·1%; 15·9-52·4) of 28 patients with one previous non-crizotinib ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EXP3B), and 43 (38·7%; 29·6-48·5) of 111 patients with two or more previous ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EXP4-5). Objective intracranial response was achieved in 20 (87·0%; 95% CI 66·4-97·2) of 23 patients with measurable baseline CNS lesions in EXP2-3A, five (55·6%; 21·2-86·3) of nine patients in EXP3B, and 26 (53·1%; 38·3-67·5) of 49 patients in EXP4-5. The most common treatment-related adverse events across all patients were hypercholesterolaemia (224 [81%] of 275 patients overall and 43 [16%] grade 3-4) and hypertriglyceridaemia (166 [60%] overall and 43 [16%] grade 3-4). Serious treatment-related adverse events occurred in 19 (7%) of 275 patients and seven patients (3%) permanently discontinued treatment because of treatment-related adverse events. No treatment-related deaths were reported.

INTERPRETATION: Consistent with its broad ALK mutational coverage and CNS penetration, lorlatinib showed substantial overall and intracranial activity both in treatment-naive patients with ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer, and in those who had progressed on crizotinib, second-generation ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors, or after up to three previous ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Thus, lorlatinib could represent an effective treatment option for patients with ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer in first-line or subsequent therapy.

loratinib could be used for crizotanib resistant tumors based on EML4-ALK variants present in ctDNA

Reference:
1. Updated efficacy and safety data from the global phase III ALEX study of alectinib (ALC) vs crizotinib (CZ) in untreated advanced ALK+ NSCLC. J Clin Oncol 36, 2018 (suppl; abstr 9043).

Discussion

Corey Langer

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Brain surgeons’ research prompts new approach to cancer treatment

Posted in CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Glioblastoma, mRNA, tumor microenvironment on May 20, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Brain surgeons’ research prompts new approach to cancer treatment

Reporter: Alex Crystal

UPDATED on 5/22/2019

For treating high-grade gliomas, an aggressive brain cancer, the combination therapy of experimental agents Toca 511 [immunotherapy] and Toca FC [chemotherapy] failed against chemotherapy or Avastin to show extended survival

Tocagen said Tuesday its brain cancer trial has not been able to show so far that a combination therapy of experimental agents Toca 511 and Toca FC extended survival when compared with chemotherapy or Avastin. The announcement was based on an interim analysis and the study will proceed to a final readout later this year.

Investors took the announcement as a sign that the trial is likely to fail, as shares fell 35% Wednesday to a record low. SVB Leerink analyst Daina Graybosch raised questions about the biological effect of the combination therapy as well as earlier-stage trial designs that Tocagen used to justify moving swiftly into a pivotal trial.

Toca 511, an immunotherapy, and Toca FC, a chemotherapy, aim to treat high-grade gliomas, an aggressive brain cancer. In the recurrent patients Tocagen hopes to treat, average survival is no more than about a year.

SOURCE

https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/tocagen-brain-cancer-trial-continues-stock-drop/555360/

Brain surgeons turn to basic science to fight childhood brain cancer @Stanford Medical School

By Krista Conger

Residents Teresa and Jamie Purzner stepped away from Neurosurgery to focus on research of medulloblastoma. The pair spent six years researching the cause of brain tumors before publishing their findings. They discovered a phosphate-adding protein called CK2 linked to the growth of this type of cancer. Afterword, they applied this finding by putting a CK2 inhibitor in mice implanted with medulloblastoma cells. After successful trials on animals, the duo combined efforts with the Stanford SPARK program to begin the development of drugs. Their efforts were rewarded and the pair went ahead with phase 1-2 clinical trials of the only known CK2 inhibitor, CX-4945. It is yet to be seen how successful their efforts will be in treating children with hedgehog-dependent medulloblastoma, but this approach opens up an entirely new and promising field of research.

SOURCE

http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/05/brain-surgeons-turn-to-basic-science-to-fight-childhood-brain-cancer.html

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Extracellular RNA and their carriers in disease diagnosis and therapy

Posted in Advanced Drug Manufacturing Technology, Bioengineering & reverse engineering design, BioIT: BioInformatics, NGS, Clinical & Translational, Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics, Clinical Genomics, Cancer Informatics, Biological Engineering, Biological Networks, Biological Networks, Gene Regulation and Evolution, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, Biotechnology, Cancer and Current Therapeutics, cell-based therapy, Chemical Genetics, Clinical Diagnostics, Clinical Genomics, Disease Biology, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Exosomes: Natural Carriers for siRNA Delivery, Gene Therapy & Gene Editing Development, Genetics & Innovations in Treatment, Genomic Testing: Methodology for Diagnosis, Microvesicle, mRNA, mRNA platform in Drug DIscovery, mRNA Therapeutics, Population genetics, Population Health Management, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, RNA Biology, RNA Biology, Cancer and Therapeutics, RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic, Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, tagged Diagnosis, extracellular RNA, new role of RNA, RNA Carrier, Therapy on May 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Reporter and Curator: Dr. Sudipta Saha, Ph.D.

RNA plays various roles in determining how the information in our genes drives cell behavior. One of its roles is to carry information encoded by our genes from the cell nucleus to the rest of the cell where it can be acted on by other cell components. Rresearchers have now defined how RNA also participates in transmitting information outside cells, known as extracellular RNA or exRNA. This new role of RNA in cell-to-cell communication has led to new discoveries of potential disease biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Cells using RNA to talk to each other is a significant shift in the general thought process about RNA biology.

Researchers explored basic exRNA biology, including how exRNA molecules and their transport packages (or carriers) were made, how they were expelled by producer cells and taken up by target cells, and what the exRNA molecules did when they got to their destination. They encountered surprising complexity both in the types of carriers that transport exRNA molecules between cells and in the different types of exRNA molecules associated with the carriers. The researchers had to be exceptionally creative in developing molecular and data-centric tools to begin making sense of the complexity, and found that the type of carrier affected how exRNA messages were sent and received.

As couriers of information between cells, exRNA molecules and their carriers give researchers an opportunity to intercept exRNA messages to see if they are associated with disease. If scientists could change or engineer designer exRNA messages, it may be a new way to treat disease. The researchers identified potential exRNA biomarkers for nearly 30 diseases including cardiovascular disease, diseases of the brain and central nervous system, pregnancy complications, glaucoma, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and multiple types of cancer.

As for example some researchers found that exRNA in urine showed promise as a biomarker of muscular dystrophy where current studies rely on markers obtained through painful muscle biopsies. Some other researchers laid the groundwork for exRNA as therapeutics with preliminary studies demonstrating how researchers might load exRNA molecules into suitable carriers and target carriers to intended recipient cells, and determining whether engineered carriers could have adverse side effects. Scientists engineered carriers with designer RNA messages to target lab-grown breast cancer cells displaying a certain protein on their surface. In an animal model of breast cancer with the cell surface protein, the researchers showed a reduction in tumor growth after engineered carriers deposited their RNA cargo.

Other than the above research work the scientists also created a catalog of exRNA molecules found in human biofluids like plasma, saliva and urine. They analyzed over 50,000 samples from over 2000 donors, generating exRNA profiles for 13 biofluids. This included over 1000 exRNA profiles from healthy volunteers. The researchers found that exRNA profiles varied greatly among healthy individuals depending on characteristics like age and environmental factors like exercise. This means that exRNA profiles can give important and detailed information about health and disease, but careful comparisons need to be made with exRNA data generated from people with similar characteristics.

Next the researchers will develop tools to efficiently and reproducibly isolate, identify and analyze different carrier types and their exRNA cargos and allow analysis of one carrier and its cargo at a time. These tools will be shared with the research community to fill gaps in knowledge generated till now and to continue to move this field forward.

References:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/scientists-explore-new-roles-rna

https://www.cell.com/consortium/exRNA

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160606120230.htm

https://www.pasteur.fr/en/multiple-roles-rnas

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/rna-functions-352

https://www.umassmed.edu/rti/biology/role-of-rna-in-biology/

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Gender affects the prevalence of the cancer type

Posted in Anti-tumor necrosis factor drugs (TNF inhibitors), Anticancer Resistance, BioIT: BioInformatics, NGS, Clinical & Translational, Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics, Clinical Genomics, Cancer Informatics, Breast Cancer - impalpable breast lesions, Cancer - General, Cancer and Current Therapeutics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Genomics, Cancer Informatics, cancer metabolism, Cancer Prevention: Research & Programs, Cancer Screening, Cancer Vaccines: Targeting Cancer Genes for Immunotherapy, Cancer-Immune Interactions, Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC), Efficacy of Anti-Tumor T Cells, Funding Opportunities for Cancer Research, Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management, Liquid Biopsy Chip detects an array of metastatic cancer cell markers in blood, Liquid Biopsy: Circulating Tumor Cells in Urine and Blood, Microbiome and Responses to Cancer Therapy, Modulating Macrophages in Cancer Immunotherapy, NK Cell-Based Cancer Immunotherapy, Pancreatic cancer, Population Health Management, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Population Health Management, Nutrition and Phytochemistry, Precision Cancer Medicine, Prostate Cancer: Monitoring vs Treatment, RNA Biology, Cancer and Therapeutics, tumor microenvironment, tagged Cancer, DNA damage, DNA repair, gender, mutation, sex on April 2, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Reporter and Curator: Dr. Sudipta Saha, Ph.D.

Gender of a person can affect the kinds of cancer-causing mutations they develop, according to a genomic analysis spanning nearly 2,000 tumours and 28 types of cancer. The results show striking differences in the cancer-causing mutations found in people who are biologically male versus those who are biologically female — not only in the number of mutations lurking in their tumours, but also in the kinds of mutations found there.

Liver tumours from women were more likely to carry mutations caused by a faulty system of DNA mending called mismatch repair, for instance. And men with any type of cancer were more likely to exhibit DNA changes thought to be linked to a process that the body uses to repair DNA with two broken strands. These biases could point researchers to key biological differences in how tumours develop and evolve across sexes.

The data add to a growing realization that sex is important in cancer, and not only because of lifestyle differences. Lung and liver cancer, for example, are more common in men than in women — even after researchers control for disparities in smoking or alcohol consumption. The source of that bias, however, has remained unclear.

In 2014, the US National Institutes of Health began encouraging researchers to consider sex differences in preclinical research by, for example, including female animals and cell lines from women in their studies. And some studies have since found sex-linked biases in the frequency of mutations in protein-coding genes in certain cancer types, including some brain cancers and advanced melanoma.

But the present study is the most comprehensive study of sex differences in tumour genomes so far. It looks at mutations not only in genes that code for proteins, but also in the vast expanses of DNA that have other functions, such as controlling when genes are turned on or off. The study also compares male and female genomes across many different cancers, which can allow researchers to pick up on additional patterns of DNA mutations, in part by increasing the sample sizes.

Researchers analysed full genome sequences gathered by the International Cancer Genome Consortium. They looked at differences in the frequency of 174 mutations known to drive cancer, and found that some of these mutations occurred more frequently in men than in women, and vice versa. When they looked more broadly at the loss or duplication of DNA segments in the genome, they found 4,285 sex-biased genes spread across 15 chromosomes.

There were also differences found when some mutations seemed to arise during tumour development, suggesting that some cancers follow different evolutionary paths in men and women. Researchers also looked at particular patterns of DNA changes. Such patterns can, in some cases, reflect the source of the mutation. Tobacco smoke, for example, leaves behind a particular signature in the DNA.

Taken together, the results highlight the importance of accounting for sex, not only in clinical trials but also in preclinical studies. This could eventually allow researchers to pin down the sources of many of the differences found in this study. Liver cancer is roughly three times as common in men as in women in some populations, and its incidence is increasing in some countries. A better understanding of its aetiology may turn out to be really important for prevention strategies and treatments.

References:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00562-7?utm_source=Nature+Briefing

https://www.nature.com/news/policy-nih-to-balance-sex-in-cell-and-animal-studies-1.15195

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26296643

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/507939v1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25985759

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Immunoediting can be a constant defense in the cancer landscape

Posted in Anticancer Resistance, Apoptosis, BioIT: BioInformatics, NGS, Clinical & Translational, Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics, Clinical Genomics, Cancer Informatics, Breast Cancer - impalpable breast lesions, Cancer - General, Cancer and Current Therapeutics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Genomics, Cancer Informatics, cancer metabolism, Cancer Prevention: Research & Programs, Cancer Screening, Cancer Surgery of the Heart, Cancer Vaccines: Targeting Cancer Genes for Immunotherapy, Cancer-Immune Interactions, Cell Biology, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Cell death pathways, Cell Processing System in Cell Therapy Process Development, cell-based therapy, Childhood cancer, Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC), combination immunotherapies., Efficacy of Anti-Tumor T Cells, Engineering Better T Cells, Engineering Enhanced Cancer Vaccines, Funding Opportunities for Cancer Research, Human Immune System in Health and in Disease, Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management, Immune Modulatory, Immuno-Oncology & Genomics, Immunology, Immunotherapy, Infectious Disease Immunodiagnostics, Innovation in Immunology Diagnostics, Integrin-targeted Combination Immunotherapy, Liquid Biopsy Chip detects an array of metastatic cancer cell markers in blood, Liquid Biopsy: Circulating Tumor Cells in Urine and Blood, Metabolic Immuno-Oncology, Microbiome and Responses to Cancer Therapy, MicroEngineering Cell-Tissue & Systems, Modulating Macrophages in Cancer Immunotherapy, Monoclonal Immunotherapy, NK Cell-Based Cancer Immunotherapy, Pancreatic cancer, Pharmacotherapy and Cell Activity, Population Health Management, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Population Health Management, Nutrition and Phytochemistry, Precision Cancer Medicine, Prostate Cancer: Monitoring vs Treatment, RNA Biology, Cancer and Therapeutics, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Single Cell Genomics, stem cell biology and patient-specific, Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine, Synergistic Innate and Adaptive Immunotherapy, Synthetic Immunology: Hacking Immune Cells, Universal Immune Cell Therapies (uICT), Voices of Patients and Healthcare Providers, tagged Cancer, cancer vaccine, DNA, HLA, immunoediting on March 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Reporter and Curator: Dr. Sudipta Saha, Ph.D.

There are many considerations in the cancer immunoediting landscape of defense and regulation in the cancer hallmark biology. The cancer hallmark biology in concert with key controls of the HLA compatibility affinity mechanisms are pivotal in architecting a unique patient-centric therapeutic application. Selection of random immune products including neoantigens, antigens, antibodies and other vital immune elements creates a high level of uncertainty and risk of undesirable immune reactions. Immunoediting is a constant process. The human innate and adaptive forces can either trigger favorable or unfavorable immunoediting features. Cancer is a multi-disease entity. There are multi-factorial initiators in a certain disease process. Namely, environmental exposures, viral and / or microbiome exposure disequilibrium, direct harm to DNA, poor immune adaptability, inherent risk and an individual’s own vibration rhythm in life.

When a human single cell is crippled (Deranged DNA) with mixed up molecular behavior that is the initiator of the problem. A once normal cell now transitioned into full threatening molecular time bomb. In the modeling and creation of a tumor it all begins with the singular molecular crisis and crippling of a normal human cell. At this point it is either chop suey (mixed bit responses) or a productive defensive and regulation response and posture of the immune system. Mixed bits of normal DNA, cancer-laden DNA, circulating tumor DNA, circulating normal cells, circulating tumor cells, circulating immune defense cells, circulating immune inflammatory cells forming a moiety of normal and a moiety of mess. The challenge is to scavenge the mess and amplify the normal.

Immunoediting is a primary push-button feature that is definitely required to be hit when it comes to initiating immune defenses against cancer and an adaptation in favor of regression. As mentioned before that the tumor microenvironment is a “mixed bit” moiety, which includes elements of the immune system that can defend against circulating cancer cells and tumor growth. Personalized (Precision-Based) cancer vaccines must become the primary form of treatment in this case. Current treatment regimens in conventional therapy destroy immune defenses and regulation and create more serious complications observed in tumor progression, metastasis and survival. Commonly resistance to chemotherapeutic agents is observed. These personalized treatments will be developed in concert with cancer hallmark analytics and immunocentrics affinity and selection mapping. This mapping will demonstrate molecular pathway interface and HLA compatibility and adaptation with patientcentricity.

References:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/immunoediting-cancer-landscape-john-catanzaro/

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)31609-9

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309432057_Circulating_tumor_cell_clusters_What_we_know_and_what_we_expect_Review

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190561/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5840207/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5593672/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.00414/full

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5593672/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190561/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4388310/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cancer-hallmark-analytics-omics-data-pathway-studio-review-catanzaro/

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Immunotherapy may help in glioblastoma survival

Posted in Anticancer Resistance, BioIT: BioInformatics, NGS, Clinical & Translational, Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics, Clinical Genomics, Cancer Informatics, Breast Cancer - impalpable breast lesions, Cancer - General, Cancer and Current Therapeutics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Genomics, Cancer Informatics, cancer metabolism, Cancer Prevention: Research & Programs, Cancer Screening, Cancer Vaccines: Targeting Cancer Genes for Immunotherapy, Cancer-Immune Interactions, Cell Biology, Childhood cancer, CNS-Immune Interface, combination immunotherapies., Efficacy of Anti-Tumor T Cells, Engineering Better T Cells, Glioblastoma, Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management, Immune Engineering, Immune Modulatory, Immuno-Oncology & Genomics, Immunodiagnostics, Immunology, Immunotherapy, Inflammasome, Innovation in Immunology Diagnostics, Integrin-targeted Combination Immunotherapy, Liquid Biopsy Chip detects an array of metastatic cancer cell markers in blood, Metabolic Immuno-Oncology, Metastasis Process, Modulating Macrophages in Cancer Immunotherapy, Monoclonal Immunotherapy, Neuronal Circuits, NK Cell-Based Cancer Immunotherapy, Pancreatic cancer, Population genetics, Population Health Management, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Precision Cancer Medicine, Prostate Cancer: Monitoring vs Treatment, RNA Biology, Cancer and Therapeutics, Synergistic Innate and Adaptive Immunotherapy, Synthetic Immunology: Hacking Immune Cells, Universal Immune Cell Therapies (uICT), tagged Cancer, Glioblastoma, Immunotherapy, pembrolizumab, survival, Therapy on March 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Reporter and Curator: Dr. Sudipta Saha, Ph.D.

Glioblastoma is the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults and is associated with poor survival. But, in a glimmer of hope, a recent study found that a drug designed to unleash the immune system helped some patients live longer. Glioblastoma powerfully suppresses the immune system, both at the site of the cancer and throughout the body, which has made it difficult to find effective treatments. Such tumors are complex and differ widely in their behavior and characteristics.

A small randomized, multi-institution clinical trial was conducted and led by researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles involved patients who had a recurrence of glioblastoma, the most common central nervous system cancer. The aim was to evaluate immune responses and survival following neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab (checkpoint inhibitor) in 35 patients with recurrent, surgically resectable glioblastoma. Patients who were randomized to receive neoadjuvant pembrolizumab, with continued adjuvant therapy following surgery, had significantly extended overall survival compared to patients that were randomized to receive adjuvant, post-surgical programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade alone.

Neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade was associated with upregulation of T cell– and interferon-γ-related gene expression, but downregulation of cell-cycle-related gene expression within the tumor, which was not seen in patients that received adjuvant therapy alone. Focal induction of programmed death-ligand 1 in the tumor microenvironment, enhanced clonal expansion of T cells, decreased PD-1 expression on peripheral blood T cells and a decreasing monocytic population was observed more frequently in the neoadjuvant group than in patients treated only in the adjuvant setting. These findings suggest that the neoadjuvant administration of PD-1 blockade enhanced both the local and systemic antitumor immune response and may represent a more efficacious approach to the treatment of this uniformly lethal brain tumor.

Immunotherapy has not proved to be effective against glioblastoma. This small clinical trial explored the effect of PD-1 blockade on recurrent glioblastoma in relation to the timing of administration. A total of 35 patients undergoing resection of recurrent disease were randomized to either neoadjuvant or adjuvant pembrolizumab, and surgical specimens were compared between the two groups. Interestingly, the tumoral gene expression signature varied between the two groups, such that those who received neoadjuvant pembrolizumab displayed an INF-γ gene signature suggestive of T-cell activation as well as suppression of cell-cycle signaling, possibly consistent with growth arrest. Although the study was not powered for efficacy, the group found an increase in overall survival in patients receiving neoadjuvant pembrolizumab compared with adjuvant pembrolizumab of 13.7 months versus 7.5 months, respectively.

In this small pilot study, neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade followed by surgical resection was associated with intratumoral T-cell activation and inhibition of tumor growth as well as longer survival. How the drug works in glioblastoma has not been totally established. The researchers speculated that giving the drug before surgery prompted T-cells within the tumor, which had been impaired, to attack the cancer and extend lives. The drug didn’t spur such anti-cancer activity after the surgery because those T-cells were removed along with the tumor. The results are very important and very promising but would need to be validated in much larger trials.

References:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/02/11/immunotherapy-may-help-patients-with-kind-cancer-that-killed-john-mccain/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e1b2e6fffccc

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30742122

https://www.practiceupdate.com/content/neoadjuvant-anti-pd-1-immunotherapy-promotes-immune-responses-in-recurrent-gbm/79742/37/12/1

https://www.esmo.org/Oncology-News/Neoadjuvant-PD-1-Blockade-in-Glioblastoma

https://neurosciencenews.com/immunotherapy-glioblastoma-cancer-10722/

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Live Conference Coverage @Medcitynews Converge 2018 Philadelphia:Liquid Biopsy and Gene Testing vs Reimbursement Hurdles

Posted in Big Data & Analytics, BioBanking, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Screening, Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC), Clinical Genomics, Diagnostics and Lab Tests, FDA, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Healthcare costs and reimbursement, KRAS Mutation, Liquid Biopsy Chip detects an array of metastatic cancer cell markers in blood, Liquid Biopsy: Circulating Tumor Cells in Urine and Blood, Patient-centered Medicine, Personalized and Precision Medicine & Genomic Research, Scientific & Biotech Conferences: Press Coverage, Uncategorized, tagged biomarker panels, circulating cancer cells, circulating DNA, ctDNA Liquid Biopsy, healthcare reimbursement, liquid biopsy, therapeutic monitoring on July 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Live Conference Coverage @Medcitynews Converge 2018 Philadelphia:Liquid Biopsy and Gene Testing vs Reimbursement Hurdles

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

9:25- 10:15 Liquid Biopsy and Gene Testing vs. Reimbursement Hurdles

Genetic testing, whether broad-scale or single gene-testing, is being ordered by an increasing number of oncologists, but in many cases, patients are left to pay for these expensive tests themselves. How can this dynamic be shifted? What can be learned from the success stories?

Moderator: Shoshannah Roth, Assistant Director of Health Technology Assessment and Information Services , ECRI Institute @Ecri_Institute
Speakers:
Rob Dumanois, Manager – reimbursement strategy, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Eugean Jiwanmall, Senior Research Analyst for Medical Policy & Technology Evaluation , Independence Blue Cross @IBX
Michael Nall, President and Chief Executive Officer, Biocept

Michael: Wide range of liquid biopsy services out there. There are screening companies however they are young and need lots of data to develop pan diagnostic test. Most of liquid biopsy is more for predictive analysis… especially therapeutic monitoring. Sometimes solid biopsies are impossible , limited, or not always reliable due to metastasis or tough to biopsy tissues like lung.

Eugean: Circulating tumor cells and ctDNA is the only FDA approved liquid biopsies. However you choose then to evaluate the liquid biopsy, PCR NGS, FISH etc, helps determines what the reimbursement options are available.

Rob: Adoption of reimbursement for liquid biopsy is moving faster in Europe than the US. It is possible in US that there may be changes to the payment in one to two years though.

Michael: China is adopting liquid biopsy rapidly. Patients are demanding this in China.

Reimbursement

Eugean: For IBX to make better decisions we need more clinical trials to correlate with treatment outcome. Most of the major cancer networks, like NCCN, ASCO, CAP, just have recommendations and not approved guidelines at this point. From his perspective with lung cancer NCCN just makes a suggestion with EGFR mutations however only the companion diagnostic is approved by FDA.

Michael: Fine needle biopsies are usually needed by the pathologist anyway before they go to liquid biopsy as need to know the underlying mutations in the original tumor, it just is how it is done in most cancer centers.

Eugean: Whatever the established way of doing things, you have to outperform the clinical results of the old method for adoption of a newer method.

Reimbursement issues have driven a need for more research into clinical validity and utility of predictive and therapeutic markers with regard to liquid biopsies. However although many academic centers try to partner with Biocept Biocept has a limit of funds and must concentrate only on a few trials. The different payers use different evidence based methods to evaluate liquid biopsy markers. ECRI also has a database for LB markers using an evidence based criteria. IBX does sees consistency among payers as far as decision and policy.

NGS in liquid biopsy

Rob: There is a path to coverage, especially through the FDA. If you have a FDA cleared NGS test, it will be covered. These are long and difficult paths to reimbursement for NGS but it is feasible. Medicare line of IBX covers this testing, however on the commercial side they can’t cover this. @IBX: for colon only kras or nras has clinical utility and only a handful of other cancer related genes for other cancers. For a companion diagnostic built into that Dx do the other markers in the panel cost too much?

Please follow on Twitter using the following #hash tags and @pharma_BI

#MCConverge

#cancertreatment

#healthIT

#innovation

#precisionmedicine

#healthcaremodels

#personalizedmedicine

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And at the following handles:

@pharma_BI

@medcitynews

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Detecting Multiple Types of Cancer With a Single Blood Test

Posted in BioBanking, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, Cancer - General, Cancer and Current Therapeutics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Informatics, Cancer Screening, Cell Biology, Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC), Diagnostics and Lab Tests, Genome Biology, Genomic Expression, Genomic Testing: Methodology for Diagnosis, Liquid Biopsy: Circulating Tumor Cells in Urine and Blood, mRNA, RNA Biology, RNA Biology, Cancer and Therapeutics, tagged Blood Device, Cancer, CT scans, human genome, liquid biopsy, mRNA on July 2, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Detecting Multiple Types of Cancer With a Single Blood Test

Reporter and Curator: Irina Robu, PhD

Monitoring cancer patients and evaluating their response to treatment can sometimes involve invasive procedures, including surgery.

The liquid biopsies have become something of a Holy Grail in cancer treatment among physicians, researchers and companies gambling big on the technology. Liquid biopsies, unlike traditional biopsies involving invasive surgery — rely on an ordinary blood draw. Developments in sequencing the human genome, permitting researchers to detect genetic mutations of cancers, have made the tests conceivable. Some 38 companies in the US alone are working on liquid biopsies by trying to analyze blood for fragments of DNA shed by dying tumor cells.

Premature research on the liquid biopsy has concentrated profoundly on patients with later-stage cancers who have suffered treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, immunotherapy or drugs that target molecules involved in the growth, progression and spread of cancer. For cancer patients undergoing treatment, liquid biopsies could spare them some of the painful, expensive and risky tissue tumor biopsies and reduce reliance on CT scans. The tests can rapidly evaluate the efficacy of surgery or other treatment, while old-style biopsies and CT scans can still remain inconclusive as a result of scar tissue near the tumor site.

As recently as a few years ago, the liquid biopsies were hardly used except in research. At the moment, thousands of the tests are being used in clinical practices in the United States and abroad, including at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; the University of California, San Diego; the University of California, San Francisco; the Duke Cancer Institute and several other cancer centers.

With patients for whom physicians cannot get a tissue biopsy, the liquid biopsy could prove a safe and effective alternative that could help determine whether treatment is helping eradicate the cancer. A startup, Miroculus developed a cheap, open source device that can test blood for several types of cancer at once. The platform, called Miriam finds cancer by extracting RNA from blood and spreading it across plates that look at specific type of mRNA. The technology is then hooked up at a smartphone which sends the information to an online database and compares the microRNA found in the patient’s blood to known patterns indicating different type of cancers in the early stage and can reduce unnecessary cancer screenings.

Nevertheless, experts warn that more studies are essential to regulate the accuracy of the test, exactly which cancers it can detect, at what stages and whether it improves care or survival rates.

SOURCE

https://www.fastcompany.com/3037117/a-new-device-can-detect-multiple-types-of-cancer-with-a-single-blood-test

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4356857/