High-Quality Nucleic Acids Harvested From Blood Exosomes

Blood-based companion diagnostics are being developed for key cancer gene mutations, such as KRAS, BRAF, and EGFR.

A real-time polymerase chain reaction (R-T PCR) will be utilized in conjunction with technology that harvests high-quality nucleic acids from blood exosomes. Shed by solid tumors into blood, exosomes are small microvesicles containing virtually the entire cancer tumor transcriptome. The exosome technology has already identified over 21,000 messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and 1,100 microRNAs (miRNA) in circulating tumor derived exosomes, all protected in the exosome lipid bilayer from any blood-based RNase.

Exosome Diagnostics, Inc. (ExosomeDx; New York, NY, USA) and DxS Ltd. (DxS; Manchester, UK) will collaborate on the development of the companion diagnostics and will use DxS' Scorpions R-T PCR mutation test kits in conjunction with ExosomeDX's xOS technology.

Initial findings were published in the December 2008 issue of Nature Cell Biology.

Cooperation between the two companies will initially focus on developing blood-based measurements of KRAS, BRAF, EGFR, and other key mutations for predicting patient response to targeted therapies. Blood-based mutation measurement is particularly valuable in circumstances where tissue bioavailability is limited, such as in lung, pancreatic, and ovarian cancers.

James McCullough, CEO ExosomeDx commented, "There are over 180 companies investigating over 370 different molecular targeted cancer therapies, many of which will require high-quality, molecular companion diagnostics."

DxS offers products, technology, and services to the healthcare industry to enable the delivery of safe and effective medicines. Working predominantly in the field of cancer, DxS has a range of companion diagnostic and research kits that detect mutations in oncogenes.

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