(Alliance News) - Angle PLC on Thursday said new research demonstrates the ability of the Parsortix system to harvest circulating tumour cells with a mesenchymal phenotype, which can be used to detect the metastatic biomarker cysteine-rich angiogenetic inducer 61 in breast cancer patients.
Cysteine-rich angiogenetic inducer 61 protein is a potent regulator of many cellular functions important in cancer development. This protein is expressed in most forms of solid tumours and in breast cancer, potentially playing a role in tumour progression, metastatic expansion, and the development of resistance to anti-cancer drugs including endocrine therapies.
The liquid biopsy company said the research was published by the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. In this study, researchers found that cysteine-rich angiogenetic inducer 61 was over-expressed in 43% of circulating tumour cells isolated from 35 breast cancer patients.
In addition, they were able to demonstrate in breast cancer cell-lines that the loss of cysteine-rich angiogenetic inducer 61 reduced the viability of tumour cells by decreasing cancer cell proliferation and cell survival. As such, cysteine-rich angiogenetic inducer 61 might serve as a novel marker for circulating tumour cells and disseminated tumour cells similar to those found in the bone marrow and help identify cells with a more aggressive phenotype.
"Cysteine-rich angiogenetic inducer 61 might therefore serve as a novel biomarker for a subset of circulating tumour cells and disseminated tumour cells with high plasticity in breast cancer. In addition, cysteine-rich angiogenetic inducer 61 might represent an interesting anti-metastatic target that could be explored in future studies," said Angle Founder & Chief Executive Andrew Newland.
Angle shares were trading 6.9% higher in London on Thursday at 94.62 pence each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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