Milestone, involving proteomic analysis of diseased and normal individuals, involved identification of the first candidate biomarkers for HD in clinical samples of plasma and cerebrospinal fluid
Proteome Systems has announced the achievement of a milestone under a collaborative agreement with the US-based HighQ Foundation for the discovery of biomarkers for monitoring the progression of Huntington's Disease (HD) and the effectiveness of treatments in clinical trials.
The milestone, involving proteomic analysis of diseased and normal individuals, was reached four months into the 18-month agreement and involved identification of the first candidate biomarkers for HD in clinical samples of plasma and cerebrospinal fluid.
The milestone payment was US$300,000.
HD is an inherited disease that affects about one in 10,000 adults in the western world - usually between the ages of 30 and 50 years - and is invariably fatal.
Huntington's disease is associated with neurodegeneration leading to a progressive decline in physical movement and mental processes.
There is currently no effective treatment.
"The research findings associated with the achievement of this first milestone give us a high level of confidence that our quest will be successful," said Keith Williams, chief executive officer of Proteome Systems.
Professor Allan Tobin from the HighQ Foundation said: "Finding biomarkers that track the development of Huntington's disease will be a great boon to clinical research and to clinical trials.
"These initial results from Proteome Systems suggest that such markers may be present and be revealed by Proteome Systems's powerful technology.
"We're much encouraged, and we look forward to working with Proteome Systems on more detailed studies".
"A very positive finding for Proteome Systems has been the observation that, although there are potentially many differences in proteins between patients and healthy individuals, a small number of these was found to be critical for accurate diagnosis of disease status" Jenny Harry, head of discovery and diagnostics, said.
This bodes well for the development of a diagnostic product, as a few critical biomarkers should be sufficient to assess disease status.
