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Exonhit presents new opportunities in blood diagnostics in neurodegenerative diseases
Identification of new markers for BSE in collaboration with Roche Applied Science

06 Dec 2005 - ExonHit Therapeutics announced that the company has identified new blood markers in collaboration with Roche Applied Science for the detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in living animals. The development of a blood-based BSE test would herald a new era by diagnosing BSE-infected animals prior to death and before they enter the food chain. Today, the routine testing of BSE is still performed using immunological tests to detect the protease-resistant form of the prion protein in brain samples of dead animals.
 
ExonHit applied its DATAS® RNA profiling technology on blood samples from bovines provided by Roche Applied Science and has identified early pre-symptomatic disease markers. The resulting RNA splicing markers were validated with 10 individual whole blood samples of BSE-infected cattle and 10 individual whole blood samples of healthy control animals by two technologically different means: micro array analysis at ExonHit and real-time PCR at Roche with the Roche LightCycler Instrument. Both validation setups revealed the same set of three markers that clearly discriminate between BSE-infected and healthy individuals. ExonHit retains all IP rights on the markers identified and diagnostics use.