Progress update on Modiano’s research to prevent to hemangiosarcoma. This update provides information on progress mid year 1 of this exciting project.
Over the past 6-months, we have made substantial progress toward objective-1, “To confirm that our patented test can detect hemangiosarcoma cells in the circulation prior to the onset of grossly detectable disease.” Specifically we have:
- 1. Verified that if we add hemangiosarcoma cells from tumors we have cultured in our laboratory to blood samples from unaffected dogs that are healthy and do not have any evidence of having hemangiosarcoma, other cancers, or other diseases (what we call spiking), we can detect those cells using our patented assay with currently available reagents
- 2. Established a threshold for detection of these “spiked” hemangiosarcoma cells. In other words, the smallest number of cells that must be present in a blood sample in order for us to detect them. This is done per unit of measure, for example cells per microliter, where a standard drop of blood equals about 20-30 microliters
- 3. Confirmed that there is a direct relationship between the number of cells spiked into a blood sample and the number of cells we detect in the assay
- 4. Advanced confirmation that the markers used for our test do not detect cells in blood of dogs with non-malignant splenic disease (nodular hyperplasia with hematoma)
- 5. Advanced confirmation that the markers used for our test do not detect cells in blood from dogs with other cancers (osteosarcoma and lymphoma)
- 6. Identified technical obstacles that need refinement in the test (antibody interference)
- 7. Started a systematic search for other targets using our RNAseq databanks
- 8. Started testing a new robotic system to enrich circulating tumor cells from blood samples
CHF-MOU-2234 MY1 Shine On Project for prevention Hemangiosarcoma in Dogs
