Exosome profiling of mRNAs and miRNAs in serum samples presented at AACR meeting

Exosome Diagnostics, a leading developer of biofluid-based molecular diagnostics for use in personalized medicine, today announced that the company is presenting a late-breaking abstract at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, in Washington D.C. The abstract is titled "Exosome profiling of mRNAs and miRNAs in serum samples from GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) patients." It will be presented during Poster Session 47 from 1 to 5 p.m. EDT on April 8 by Johan Skog, Ph.D., the newly appointed chief scientific officer of Exosome Diagnostics.   

In this study, Exosome Diagnostics used its proprietary RNA-extraction technology to measure a broad spectrum of full-length mRNA and microRNA from low volumes (2 mL) of frozen, archival serum from brain cancer patients enrolled in a therapeutic clinical trial. Prior to the introduction of Exosome Diagnostics' technology, similar biomarker analysis would have required performing invasive brain tissue biopsies.

This clinical study represents the third biofluid in which Exosome Diagnostics has demonstrated the ability to harvest disease-specific RNA biomarkers. Data have been presented in clinical studies from different disease groups from urine, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid exosome preparations.

"Extraction of high-quality RNA, particularly intact messenger RNA, from blood, urine or CSF samples is an important advance for discovering and measuring both known and novel biomarkers for patient selection and drug response," said Johan Skog , Ph.D.  "This study demonstrates that frozen and archived biofluid samples can be interrogated for gene expression along with fresh samples in patient populations of interest to clinical investigators and drug developers."

James McCullough , chief executive officer of Exosome said, "Rapid, reproducible extraction of high quality RNA with appropriate internal quality control from frozen blood samples satisfies an important request from our pharmaceutical partners to unlock the potential of their vast clinical trial bio-banks.  We are now firming plans to launch an Exosome Diagnostics life sciences kit product line in early 2014 to enable drug developers and researchers to pursue biomarker discovery in cancer, CNS and other diseases."   

Exosomes are microscopic packages shed by all cells into biofluids such as blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid. Exosomes protect an abundance of active genetic material (ribonucleic acid or "RNA") that, when properly harvested, can produce accurate molecular diagnostic measurements using standard PCR and sequencing instruments. In addition to its planned life science product line, Exosome Diagnostics has been conducing multi-center clinical validation studies in partnership with the Prostate Cancer Foundation for the first-ever regulated exosome in vitro diagnostic, which targets early stage prostate cancer from a random patient urine sample.