Early Diagnosis Test for ALS Updated

There has been progress on a simple blood test for early diagnosis of amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis (ALS).

Amorphix Life Sciences' (Ontario, Canada) diagnostic blood test measures levels of misfolded superoxide dismutase 1 (mSOD1) in the plasma of ALS patients. Preliminary data have shown that mSOD1 is present and measurable in the plasma of ALS patients but not detectable in normal subjects.

The company is using its proprietary antibodies and AMFIA technology to develop a simple and rapid blood test that will identify patients with early-stage disease. Currently, clinicians must rely on a combination of clinical findings and indirect testing to confirm a diagnosis of ALS, as there is no diagnostic test or biomarker at their disposal. The average survival after diagnosis is 3 to 5 years, and there are very few treatment options available for patients once diagnosed with ALS.

Amorfix is a pioneer in the ability to identify unique regions that are buried in normal proteins, and exposed to antibodies when proteins are aberrantly folded. These unique regions are designated disease specific epitopes (DSE), which can be exploited by Amorfix to develop highly specific diagnostic tools, as well as targets for therapeutics of protein misfolding diseases

An early-stage product development company Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd. develops therapeutic antibodies and diagnostics targeting misfolded protein diseases. Amorfix utilizes its computational discovery platform, ProMIS, to predict novel disease specific epitopes (DSEs) on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins.

Using its technology, Amorfix is developing novel antibody therapeutics and companion diagnostics for cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In addition, it has developed two proprietary technologies to specifically identify very low levels of misfolded proteins in a biological sample: Epitope Protection and AMFIA, an ultrasensitive dual-bead immunoassay. Use of these technologies has generated a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) screening test for both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and an ultrasensitive method for detecting the hallmark of AD, aggregated beta-amyloid, in brain tissue, CSF, and blood from animal models of AD.

Neil Cashman, Amorfix cofounder and CSO will be presenting an update of its ALS diagnostic assay at the 24th International Symposium on MND/ALS being held in Milan (Italy) December 6-8, 2013.

"This international conference represents an excellent forum for Amorfix to highlight recent progress on our ground-breaking, simple blood test for the early diagnosis of ALS,” said Dr. Robert Gundel, Amorfix president and CEO. The International Symposium on MND/ALS is the largest medical and scientific conference on motor neuron disease and is attended by more than 800 delegates from academia and the pharmaceutic industry.

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Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd.