Biocept Inc (NASDAQ:BIOC) has announced the publication of a study showing that the addition of Switch-Blocker technology to common PCR-based liquid biopsy assays significantly increased sensitivity in detecting rare cancer mutations.
The abstract was published in the November 2021 issue of the “Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.”
The San Diego, California-based company’s proprietary Switch-Blocker technology enriches oncogenic mutations of interest, while suppressing wild-type (normal) DNA, resulting in ultra-high sensitivity and accuracy.
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In the study, Switch-Blockers were combined with conventional real-time PCR and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) assays.
“Our quantitative Switch-Blocker technology demonstrates an unprecedented ability to find and distinguish extremely rare genetic events — even in blood that contains mostly DNA from normal white blood cells,” Biocept Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director Michael Dugan said in a statement. “This can greatly enhance the clinical sensitivity of our cell-free tumor DNA assays and has broad application in the continued development of highly sensitive and quantitative molecular diagnostic assays used to evaluate cerebrospinal fluid or blood from patients with cancer.”
Dugan noted that Switch-Blocker-based assays can help detect cancer biomarkers that “otherwise might be missed,” improving treatment selection.
“They can also be used to evaluate treatment-related changes, find minimal residual disease or identify early disease recurrence,” he added.
The company said the results showed that the addition of Switch-Blockers increased the sensitivity of allele-specific primer assays by more than 200 times, from about 1% minor allele frequency (MAF) to better than 0.01%. “The sensitivity of multiplex competitive allele-specific TaqMan assays, commonly used with PCR amplification, were increased greater than 1,000 times, from about 10% MAF to 0.01% or better,” it added.
The company explained that the ability to significantly increase the sensitivity of conventional mutation assays using Switch-Blocker technology is critical for helping to find rare genetic events in a wide range of applications, including “solid tumor cancers, where a majority of biomarkers in blood occur at less than 1% MAF.”
The abstract (#TT33), titled “The Use of Switch-Blocker Probes for the Ultra-High Sensitivity of Detection of Rare Genetic Events Using Conventional Real-Time and Droplet Digital PCR Assays,” can be accessed here.
Biocept’s Switch-Blocker platform is the basis for the company’s Target Selector assays and can be used with tissue, blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples. The technology enables industry-leading sensitivity for the detection of mutations from circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). It has been validated to 0.05% minor allele frequency in blood, which provides significant advantages for identifying actionable cancer biomarkers. Switch-Blocker technology also has been validated and found to be highly sensitive in detecting the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes coronavirus (COVID-19) infections.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive