Chronix Biomedical Partners With University Of Calgary To Commercialize Serum DNA-Based Blood Test For Mad Cow Disease

출처 : Medical News Today – Apr 15 4:30 AM
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/185459.php

Chronix Biomedical today announced that it is partnering with the University of Calgary to develop a commercial version of its serum DNA-based blood test for the early detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. Chronix researchers have published data demonstrating that the company’s proprietary techniques can accurately detect BSE in cattle before any disease symptoms are evident. Currently BSE can only be definitively diagnosed with a post-mortem brain biopsy. Development of the commercial BSE assay is supported by a grant from the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) and Genome Canada. Chronix intends to begin offering BSE testing services to the cattle industry once the commercial test is finalized and validated.

Chronix’s technology identifies disease-specific genetic fingerprints based on circulating DNA that is released into the bloodstream by damaged and dying cells. The BSE test represents the first commercial application of Chronix’s technology, which is primarily being developed for the detection and monitoring of human diseases including cancer and chronic conditions. Chronix recently published studies showing that it can identify the presence or absence of active disease in multiple sclerosis patients and that its approach can accurately detect early stage breast cancer with high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. Further validating the Chronix technology, researchers will disclose additional breast and prostate cancer study results in an upcoming oral presentation at the 2010 ASCO Annual Meeting.

“The technology from Chronix is the first to demonstrate the potential to achieve our goal of an accurate, cost-effective assay that will revolutionize BSE testing, making it economically and logistically feasible to screen all cattle in the food chain before BSE symptoms appear,” said Christoph Sensen, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine and Principal Investigator of the grant research program. “This effort is critically important because the risk of introducing BSE into the food chain continues to worry consumers and hinder international trade.”

Chronix’s proprietary serum DNA blood tests are based on a growing body of publications showing that circulating DNA fragments can be identified and analyzed to provide a diagnostic window into changes associated with specific diseases. These changes can be used to track the presence of disease months or years before symptoms appear

Howard Urnovitz, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Chronix stated: “Our technology for the first time makes possible the early detection of BSE in an accurate, timely and cost-effective way. We appreciate the visionary support of ALMA and Genome Canada and look forward to working with our colleagues at the University of Calgary to develop a commercial BSE assay. Chronix is also currently developing additional serum DNA-based blood tests for human applications in cancer and chronic neurological conditions.”

BSE was among the first diseases that Chronix showed could be detected using its novel approach. In a 2009 publication in Nucleic Acids Research, scientists working with Chronix demonstrated that their blood test based on circulating DNA sequences could identify the presence of BSE and a related condition long before symptoms were evident.

ASCO abstract #10505: Comparative analysis of the chromosomal origins of circulating nucleic acids in breast and prostate cancer, June 7, 2010.

Source
Chronix Biomedical

인간광우병(vCJD) 환자인 딘 버렐(Dean Burrell, 25세, 영국)에 관한 2010년 2월 14일자 영국 언론의 보도 내용입니다.

 

제목은 “CJD dad’s Disney dream comes true(크로이츠펠트야콥병 아빠의 디즈니 꿈 실현)”이라고 되어 있습니다.

 

그런데 기사 본문의 첫 대목을 보니 25세의 남성을 “광우병이라고 불리는 질병의 인간 형태(the human form of so-called Mad Cow Disease)”의 질병에 걸 설명하고 있습니다.

 

이어진 문장에서 두 아이의 아빠인 딘은 영국에서 인간광우병(vCJD or “variant” Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease)에 감염된 사람 중에서 나이가 가장 어린 사람 중의 한 명이라고 설명하고 있습니다.

 

의사들이 그가 인간광우병에 걸린 것으로 처음으로 의심한 때(when doctors first suspected he had the disease)는 그가 25세 생일이 되기 불과 이틀 전이었다고 합니다.

 

아레사 빈슨 사례에서도 suspected란 단어의 해석 때문에 논란이 되었던 적이  있습니다만… sCJD나 vCJD의 확정진단은 사후부검을 통해 가능하기 때문에 환자가 생존한 상황에서는 의사들은 의심하거나 추정할 수 있을 뿐입니다.

 

기사 원문의 아래쪽 박스에는 질병관리본부 지침 상 vCJD 진단 기준과 vCJD 의심환자(possible)와 추정환자(probable)의 분류 기준이 정리되어 있습니다.

이 기사의 내용만으로 딘 버렐(Dean Burrell)이 어떻게  vCJD 진단을 받았고, vCJD 분류 상 어떻게 분류되어야 하는지를 명확히 알 수 없습니다.

 

다만 2010년 2월 현재 인간광우병 환자가 172명(그 중에서 현재 4명 생존)이나 발생한 영국의 언론에서도 현재까지 CJD와 vCJD를 명확하게 구분하지 않고 혼용하여 사용하고 있다는 점은 확실하게 알 수 있습니다.

(전세계 인간광우병 통계 : http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/vcjdworld.htm)

이 기사의 맨 마지막에서 두 번째 문장을 보더라도 “그 질병(인간광우병)이 인간에게 (종간장벽을) 뛰어넘을 수(전염될 수) 있음이 밝혀진 것은 1996년이었으며, CJD(정확한 의미로는 vCJD)의 원인이 되는 물질을 옮길 수 있는 척수 같은 쇠고기 조직을 제거하도록 결정되었다. 영국에서 1989년 이후에 태어난 사람 중에서 인간광우병(vCJD)으로 밝혀진(진단받은) 사람은 현재까지 한 명도 없다.(It was 1996 when it was discovered the disease had jumped to humans and the decision was made to remove tissue from beef, such as the spinal chord, which may have carried the agent that causes CJD. No case of vCJD has been identified in the UK in individuals born after 1989.)”라는 내용이 있습니다.

 

다시 말해 이 기사에서 CJD와 vCJD를 혼용한 사례가 2군데에서 확인됩니다.