biomarkers

Genetics research offers new life to failed drugs

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:59:59 -0400

Big Pharma companies are often quick to turn their backs on a drug that doesn't deliver the kind of data needed to win approval as well as big markets. But a series of these failed development programs have been resurrected by scientists who decided to search for the kind of genetic biomarkers that would define a group of patients who would respond positively.

Research scientist Michael Bristow, for example, has formed a new company to take over development of bucindolol, which had failed to measure up against other cardiovascular drugs on the market. And Clinical Data hopes that it can identify a subpopulation of patients who will respond to the antidepressant vilazodone, dropped after a disappointing mid-stage trial mounted by Merck KGaA.

- read the article in the Wall Street Journal

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Prostate cancer vaccine proves effective in mice

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:59:59 -0500

A prostate cancer vaccine developed at the University of Southern California was able to prevent the disease in 90 percent of mice engineered to develop cancer. And the scientists say that the same approach offers real potential for men with rising levels of prostate specific antigens, or PSA, a biomarker for the disease. The two-course vaccine approach is designed to spark an immune response against prostate stem cell antigen, the protein target of some therapeutic vaccines now under development.

"By early vaccination, we have basically given these mice life-long protection against a disease they were destined to have," said the study's lead investigator, W. Martin Kast, Ph.D., a professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. "This has never been done before and, with further research, could represent a paradigm shift in the management of human prostate cancer."

- check out the release

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Blood test accurate in identifying Alzheimer's

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:59:59 -0400

A team of scientists primarily led by researchers at Stanford University say they have developed a blood test that is 90 percent accurate in identifying Alzheimer's, often years before its worst symptoms become evident. Diagnosing Alzheimer's has been difficult and the field has been dependent on drugs that are often notoriously ineffective. A test that could universally diagnose most patients at a very early stage would be extremely helpful--once drug developers gain approvals for experimental therapies in the pipeline to treat the disease.

To develop the right biomarker, explains The New York Times' Andrew Pollack, scientists focused on proteins involved in communications between cells. They found that they could distinguish Alzheimer's patients by focusing on 18 proteins, with the test scoring 90 percent accuracy when compared against clinical diagnosis.

- here's the article from The New York Times

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Blocking enzyme effective in preventing breast cancer

Mon, 14 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Scientists at Canada's McGill University say blocking the enzyme PTP1B delayed cancer in mice that also respond to Herceptin. They add development of new drugs that can block the enzyme could well boost the effectiveness of other therapies in humans. The team concentrated on a strain of mice that develops breast cancer as the result of over-activity in the Her-2 gene, a trigger in about one quarter of all breast cancer cases and a biomarker for Heceptin. In addition to delaying the onset of breast tumors, researchers said deleting PTP1B also prevented secondary lung tumors.They noted that in animal studies, the benefits of treatment lasted two months after two weeks of therapy.

- here's the report on the research from the BBC

Researchers tout results for new Alzheimer's test

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

France's ExonHit Therapeutics says it could have a diagnostic test that can identify Alzheimer's. The disease has been notoriously difficult to diagnose at an early stage. But ExonHit says a panel of 60 biomarkers that can be detected in the blood can possibly be used to create the first such test. Researchers studied the diagnostic test in a trial involving 51 people with Alzheimer's and 34 who did not. The panel of genes was able to identify 78 percent of the patients with the disease and 82 percent of the volunteers who were free of it. A follow-up study is being prepared to further assess the ability of the test to ID Alzheimer's. ExonHit has a therapy in Phase Ib that is designed to reduce the buildup of amyloid plaque, widely believed to be central to the development of the disease.

"Biomarkers from blood represent a major step as compared to current methodology aimed at detecting biomarkers from cerebrospinal fluid obtained through a lumbar puncture" declares Gustavo Roman, professor of medicine and neurology at the University of Texas in San Antonio, and a member of ExonHit's Scientific Board.

- see this release on the biomarker research

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Biomarkers offer little help to cardiologists

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:01:38 -0500

New biomarkers being tracked for cardiac risk did help provide indicators of a person's condition, according to Harvard researchers. But the biomarkers currently offer little more than what physicians can already glean from a patients record for smoking, obesity, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Article

Progress made in identifying Alzheimer biomarkers

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:01:39 -0500

The Wall Street Journal examines the "hot" field of biomarker research for Alzheimer's. Scientists in the U.S. and Europe have identified proteins that can serve as an early warning of Alzheimer's, which in turn would allow for better treatment at an earlier stage for many patients. Researchers from Cornell and the Weill Cornell Medical College say they've found 23 biomarkers for Alzheimer's. Earlier this year, researchers in the U.K. working with Proteome Sciences say they have identified 15 biomarkers for Alzheimer's. Much of this data is preliminary though, and scientists in the field are looking to ongoing studies to confirm the best biomarkers for use in diagnosing patients. Some expect that a new test for Alzheimer's could emerge in the next three to five years, at the earliest.

- read the article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)

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Data supports p27 as cancer survival biomarker

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:01:39 -0500

A research group led by Peggy Porter, M.D., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center says that the protein p27 may be an effective biomarker in predicting the likelihood of surviving breast cancer. Researchers have known for years that p27 prevents cells from dividing and low levels of p27 are associated with a poor prognosis in breast cancer as well as other cancers. For this study, researchers were able to examine the level of p27 with the outcomes of patients involved in two clinical trials of two standard chemotherapy treatments.

The researchers found that low p27 expression is associated with poor breast-cancer prognosis, particularly among women with hormone-receptor-positive tumors, which depend on the hormones estrogen and progesterone to grow. Specifically, they found the five-year survival was 91 percent in women whose tumors had high p27 expression, as compared to a survival rate of 85 percent in women whose tumors exhibited low p27 expression. The researchers found no association between p27 expression and decreased survival among women with hormone-receptor-negative tumors.

- check out the release on the biomarker research

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BRNI discovery raises hopes for Alzheimer's test

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:01:39 -0400

Researchers at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute say they've identified a biomarker for Alzheimer's that may allow for an early diagnosis of the debilitating disease with a brief, painless skin test. Alzheimer's is a notoriously difficult disease to diagnose. Standard methods today involve a battery of imperfect psychiatric evaluations or post-mortems that are of no help to the living. When the disease begins it is also hard to distinguish from other impairments with similar symptoms, delaying therapy that could provide significant benefits in slowing the progression of the disease. But a new scientific study says that Alzheimer's spurs changes in the enzymes MAP Kinase Erk 1 and 2. Their work was based on skin tissue samples taken from the bodies of patients who had suffered a range of ailments including Alzheimer's. And it points the way to crucial early therapy.

"Potential treatments of Alzheimer's," says Daniel L. Alkon, M.D., scientific director of BRNI and coauthor of the study with Tapan K. Khan, Ph.D., assistant professor, "are likely to have their greatest efficacy before the devastating and widespread impairment of brain function that inevitably develops after four or more years."

- read the release on the research project