MONMOUTH JUNCTION, NJ, November 14, 2019 – Matt Kuruc from Biotech Support Group gave a presentation entitled “Stroma Liquid Biopsy™ - Blood-based biomarkers to monitor stromal conditioning in cancer” at the Companion Diagnostics Forum, October 30, 2019 in Princeton NJ.
 

The talk described how commercial enthusiasm continues for the prospects of characterizing cancerous tissue non-invasively through liquid biopsy biomarkers. However, the vast majority of the biomarkers being investigated serve to report the landscape of DNA mutations associated with tumor burden; only part of the full picture of progressive disease. The other largely neglected part of tumor progression, comes from the cooperation of the normal host response to local inflammation. This stromal conditioning assists the tumor ecosystem so that ultimately signals originating in the primary tumor enable cancer cells to enter the general blood circulation and metastasize to distant sites. Such metastatic potentiation is not reportable from gene-centric liquid biopsy data.

The Stroma Liquid Biopsy™ pan-cancer biomarker panel opens the door to monitor this cooperation using blood rather than tissue. The protein panel categorically connects with a host’s innate immune response – the first responder team to local inflammation: coagulation (platelets), complement (crosstalk to adaptive immunity) and neutrophil recruitment. All these pathways are interconnected, activated by proteolysis, and regulated by protease inhibition. Because proteolysis is irreversible, all species of life have evolved molecular regulatory systems to control aberrancies. The most distinguished is a protease inhibitory family of regulators known as Serpins.

The talk describes how micro-environmental changes in tumors are sufficient to distort the ratio of cleaved inactive serpin forms from intact active serpin forms, and that these ratios are sufficiently differentiated so as to be reportable in the general blood circulation. Serpins A1 (Alpha-1-Antitrypsin) and D1 (Heparin Cofactor II) primarily regulate the activities of the inflammatory proteases elastase and thrombin respectively. Using functional enzyme assays, preliminary results correlate to LC-MS/MS results, confirming a significant increase in the cleaved/total ratio in cancer sera, corresponding to a net decrease in inhibitory active serpin, relative to a normal/healthy status.

Swapan Roy, Ph.D., President and Founder of Biotech Support Group, concurs stating “Although Serpins circulate in a variety of functional on/off sub-forms, they have been previously observed and reported by immunological methods (ELISA). This can lead to egregiously misleading interpretation of a host’s systemic response to cancer, as the immunological assay measures in aggregate the functionally opposite intact and cleaved serpin forms. Significantly, cancer patients have a greater amount of cleaved Serpin forms relative to normal. Our intellectual property now opens up the ability to monitor this important stromal influence in the progression of cancer, presenting many precision medicine possibilities. 

Download Companion Diagnostics Forum presentation at:

https://www.biotechsupportgroup.com/v/vspfiles/templates/257/pdf/Companion%20Diagnostics%20Forum.pdf

For more information on the BSG complete line of Albumin & IgG Removal products, visit: https://www.biotechsupportgroup.com/Articles.asp?ID=451

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Contact:
Matthew Kuruc 732-274-2866

mkuruc@biotechsupportgroup.com

About Biotech Support Group LLC

Converging with cultural and technological disruptions forthcoming in healthcare, Biotech Support Group develops methods for cost effective and efficient sample prep essential for these expanding markets. Following a tiered business strategy, the company continues its growth in the consumable research products area supporting the rapidly expanding installation of LC-MS instrument and computational infrastructure. For this market, key products include: AlbuVoid™ and AlbuSorb™ for albumin depletion, Cleanascite™ for lipid adsorption, HemogloBind™ and HemoVoid™ for hemoglobin removal, and NuGel™ for functional proteomics. From these innovations, the company has acquired knowledgebase and biomarker intellectual property assets that support discoveries of protein markers from blood, with special emphasis on early detection and personalized medical decisions for cancer patients. For more information, go to http://www.biotechsupportgroup.com