Proteome says early results of research yield biomarkers for Huntington's Disease

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Jan. 12 - Proteome Systems Ltd. said Thursday that an early outcome from its clinical collaboration with the HighQ Foundation in New York is the identification of multiple biomarkers for Huntington's Disease using the Proteome Systems discovery platforms.

A two-year human study will now validate these markers, which could then be used to accelerate the development of effective new drug treatments for Huntington's Disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, according to a company news release.

Currently, there are no drugs available to treat Huntington's Disease and rapid drug development requires diagnostic biomarkers to determine drug efficacy, officials said.

Proteome Systems and HighQ said they are considering patenting several of these proteins as candidate biomarkers of the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's Disease.

Huntington's Disease is caused by a defect in the Huntington gene, which genetically programs degeneration of neurons in certain areas of the brain. This degeneration causes uncontrolled movements, loss of intellectual faculties and emotional disturbance. In the United States alone, about 30,000 people have Huntington's Disease; estimates of its prevalence are about one in every 10,000 people globally.

Those with the defective gene will develop this fatal neurodegenerative disease at some point in their lives, usually between ages of 30 and 50 years.

The disease can be diagnosed with a DNA test at birth, but only about 5% of suspected cases in the United States are diagnosed early because there is currently no way of determining when the disease will manifest and no treatment is available.

In the collaborative program, funded by the HighQ Foundation, Proteome said it has discovered novel proteins for Huntington's Disease using its proprietary ProteomIQ and BioinformatIQ platforms.

These proteins found in human blood samples constitute potential biomarkers for detecting the onset and progression of Huntington's Disease, officials said.

The next step is to validate these proteins as diagnostic/prognostic markers for early onset and disease progression in the two-year study of Huntington's Disease patients, officials said.

Along with the Huntington's Disease marker-validation program, Proteome said it will analyze blood samples collected from people with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases to investigate which of these biomarkers are useful to determine efficacy of drugs being developed to treat those diseases, monitor progression of the diseases to administer the most effective drugs and screen people for early onset of disease.

Proteome is a Sydney, Australia, medical technology company with internationally sought-after diagnostics and therapeutics expertise in the fields of respiratory disease, neurobiology and aging, cancer and infectious diseases.

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