TrovaGene, Inc. (Pink Sheets: TROV), a developer of trans-renal molecular diagnostics, today announced that it has obtained an exclusive worldwide license to mutations of the SF3B1 splicing factor, which have been shown to be associated with disease progression and chemotherapy response in patients suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
The findings have been published in the Dec 22 issue of BLOOD, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, in an article titled "Mutations of the SF3B1 splicing factor in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: association with progression and fludarabine-refractoriness" (Rossi D. et al., Blood 118:6904-6908, 2011). A US patent application is pending.
Research results suggest that SF3B1 mutations represent important incremental diagnostic markers beyond TP53 disruptions and NOTCH1 mutations in CLL patients, and may also provide a therapeutic target for SF3B1 inhibitors, which are currently in pre-clinical development. Gianluca Gaidano and Davide Rossi at the Amedeo Avogadro University (Novara, Italy), lead the research team, in collaboration with their colleague Roberto Foa at the Sapienza University (Rome, Italy) that discovered the SF3B1 mutations.