New study published in Journal of Molecular Diagnostics follows recent publication showing utility of Chronix's serum DNA tests in breast cancer
Chronix Biomedical today announced publication of a study that supports the utility of its serum DNA blood tests to predict clinical status and monitor disease activity and response to treatment in multiple sclerosis (MS). Chronix Biomedical uses proprietary technology to identify disease-specific genetic fingerprints based on the circulating DNA that is released into the bloodstream by damaged and dying cells. A growing body of publications from Chronix and other researchers shows that this circulating DNA can be identified and analyzed to provide a diagnostic window into ongoing changes in the genome associated with specific diseases-changes that can be used to track the presence or absence of active disease. This new study is the first to show that the Chronix approach can be used to monitor the clinical status of a chronic disease. The findings are published in the current online edition of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.
"These positive data further validate the premise underlying the Chronix approach, showing that the many genetic anomalies associated with active and stable relapsing-remitting MS can be detected by analyzing DNA fragments circulating in the blood serum," said Mario Clerici, M.D., Chair of Immunology, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Technologies, University of Milano, Milan, Italy and a co-author of the study. "The prognostic value achieved in this study supports the ability of this new approach to help manage relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, potentially offering clinicians a new tool to easily assess which MS treatment options are most effective for their patients, as well as providing critical information that will facilitate development of the next generation of MS therapeutics."
In the study, researchers applied advanced analytical techniques developed by Chronix to identify genomic DNA fingerprints in the bloodstream of 28 MS patients known to have relapsing or stable disease as compared to 50 healthy volunteers. Researchers were able to distinguish the MS patients from the healthy volunteers and they also were able to use these circulating DNA fingerprints to differentiate periods of active disease attacks from the stable periods of disease remission characterizing relapsing-remitting MS, which affects about 85% of MS patients.
William M. Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology at Vanderbilt University and a co-author of the study noted," The data from this study suggests that the Chronix quantitative blood test provides a simpler, safer and more cost effective approach to assessing the activity of investigational new drugs for MS. Development of new MS drugs is currently complicated by the fact that disease status is monitored using dye-enhanced MRI scans that are expensive and are associated with occasional toxicities. In addition, they can only show neurological damage after it has occurred, while the Chronix approach provides a real time measure of disease activity."