An opportunity exists to require the rights to a real time PCR test for thirteen oncogenic HPV types (Jenkins et al, J Virol Methods 2013).

Interested parties should contact:
Lawyer Maria Torvund
Uniongata 18
3732 Skien
Norway
Tel: +47 35 53 20 00
Fax: +47 35 53 20 01
advokat@mariatorvund.no

not later than 01.09.2017

Method to more accurately test anti-cancer drugs have now been developed at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. The method paves the way to much earlier assessment of who benefits from a specific drug and who does not.
“It is common for cancer patients to be prescribed drugs that fail to help them, often with side effects. But, we have shown that this method can be used as early as in the drug development phase to determine which patient groups will benefit from the drug,” says Berglind Osk Einarsdottir, a researcher at Sahlgrenska Cancer Center.
The method for identifying whether cancer patients will benefit from a specific treatment is based on taking biopsies of the tumours during surgery – small tissue samples that are processed and implanted under the skin of a number of mice.
In her research, Berglind Osk Einarsdottir follows the tumours growth in the animal models, and tests how they respond to different cancer drugs. The experiments take anywhere from a few weeks to few months, depending on the growth rate of the tumours.
 “This is not a method that is currently used in Swedish healthcare, but we chose to perform experiments to show that it works and can be used in the future if needed,” says Berglind Osk Einarsdottir.
She feels the potential really lies in the reverse application, where the same drug is tested on mice implanted with tumour tissue from many different patients. One of her substudies involves this very notion, namely how 33 patients responded to the anticancer agent Karonudib, which was recently developed at Karolinska Institutet.
The experiments showed that two-thirds of the patient samples responded to the treatment. The question was, what did they have in common – similar DNA, metabolism, protein expression or something else? Such knowledge would make it possible to better predict in which patients a drug will really inhibit tumour growth and help kill cancer cells.
 “It turned out that it didn’t matter what mutations were found in the tissues. What we did see was a possible way that the tumours could become resistant to the treatment. Some samples had a high expression of a protein that helps the cells repel the drug, and that was what we found – a potential mechanism for resistance.”
“You can use the method in patient oriented way, where the aim is to identify which anti-cancer drug will benefit a specific patient the best. Or in a drug development oriented way, where the aim is to identify which subgroup of patients will benefit the most from a specific anti-cancer drug. It is here that we think the greatest opportunities exist,” she says.

University of Gothenburg
www.gu.se/english/about_the_university/news-calendar/News_detail//improved-accuracy-when-testing-cancer-drugs.cid1472499

A subgroup of patients with osteosarcoma – a form of bone cancer – could be helped by an existing drug, suggest scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators at University College London Cancer Institute and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust. In the largest genetic sequencing study of osteosarcoma to date, scientists discovered that 10 per cent of patients with a genetic mutation in particular growth factor signalling genes may benefit from existing drugs, known as IGF1R inhibitors.
The results suggest a re-trial of IGF1R inhibitors for the subset of patients with osteosarcoma who are likely to respond based on their genetic profile.
Osteosarcoma is the most common form of primary bone cancer in children and young adults, usually affecting people aged 10 to 24 years. 160 new patients are diagnosed with osteosarcoma in the UK each year, of which around one third cannot be cured.
The current treatment for osteosarcoma is chemotherapy followed by surgery, where the bone tumours are removed. There has not been a new treatment for osteosarcoma in almost 40 years, in spite of extensive research.
In the study, scientists analysed the genome of 112 childhood and adult tumours – double the number of tumours studied previously. In 10 per cent of cases, the team discovered cancer-driving mutations in insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signalling genes.
IGF signalling plays a major role in bone growth and development during puberty. Researchers believe that IGF signalling is also implicated in the uncontrollable growth of bone that is characteristic of osteosarcoma.
IGF signalling genes are the target of existing drugs, known as IGF1R inhibitors. Past clinical trials of IGF1R inhibitors as a treatment for osteosarcoma yielded mixed results although occasional patients responded to the treatment. In spite of this, IGF1R inhibitors have not been further tested in osteosarcoma, as it had been unclear who would benefit from the treatment.
In the study, scientists looked for mutations in the tumours to understand the mechanism of osteosarcoma development. The genetic information revealed a specific process for rearranging the chromosomes that results in several cancer-driving mutations at once.
“By sequencing the whole genome of the tumours, we have unpicked the mechanism behind osteosarcoma for the first time. We discovered a new process – chromothripsis amplification – in which the chromosome is shattered, multiplied and rejigged to generate multiple cancer-driving mutations at the same time. We believe this is why we see very similar osteosarcoma tumours in children and adults, which are not the result of ageing.”
Professor Adrienne Flanagan, senior author from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust and University College London Cancer Institute
“Currently, there are no new osteosarcoma treatments on the horizon. Genomic sequencing has provided the evidence needed to revisit clinical trials of IGF1R inhibitors for the subset of patients that responded in the past. The mutations of patients’ tumours may enable clinicians to predict who will, and will not respond to these drugs, resulting in more efficient clinical trials. The drugs could be effective for 10 per cent of osteosarcoma patients.”

Wellcome Sanger Institute
www.sanger.ac.uk/news/view/existing-drugs-could-benefit-patients-bone-cancer-genetic-study-suggests

An international team that just conducted the largest study of Tourette Syndrome has identified genetic abnormalities that are the first definitive risk genes for the disorder.
Although Tourette has long been thought to have a genetic basis — because the syndrome tends to appear in families — before now no definitive risk genes had been found. The breakthrough came when researchers focused on a relatively new area of genomics research that takes a broader look at the entire genome, rather than searching for a particular gene, says Peristera Paschou, Purdue University associate biology professor.
"Most times we focus on a mutation of a single base pair, which are the building blocks of DNA, and look for a mutation. But in recent years we’ve realized that there is another type of variation of the human genome," Paschou says.
Scientists have been exploring how often short sections of genes are repeated through the entire genome, how these repetitions might vary among individuals, and whether these repetitions, which are called copy number variants, have an effect on health.
"These variations may involve a large part of the DNA sequence and may even include whole genes. We have only very recently begun to understand how copy number variation may relate to disease," she says. "In the case of this research on Tourette Syndrome, we scanned the entire genome, and through physical analysis, we were able to identify where this variation lies.
"We rarely find variants that are associated at such a high level. This is why this is such a big breakthrough."
Dr. Jeremiah Scharf, of the Psychiatric & Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the Massachusetts General Hospital Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology and the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Genomic Medicine, co-senior author of the report, says this is a significant finding.
"The challenge of recognizing that Tourette Syndrome is not a single gene disorder, and that a stringent statistical certainty is required in order to declare a gene to be significantly associated with it, has been our long-term aim," he says. "We believe that what sets our study apart from prior studies is that the two genes we have identified both surpassed the stringent threshold of ‘genome-wide significance,’ and so, represent the first two definitive Tourette Syndrome susceptibility genes."

Purdue University
www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2017/Q2/tourette-syndrome-risk-increases-in-people-with-genetic-copy-variations.html

Exosomes – tiny biological nanoparticles which transfer information between cells – offer significant potential in detecting and treating disease, the most comprehensive overview so far of research in the field has concluded.
Areas which could benefit include cancer treatment and regenerative medicine, say Dr Steven Conlan from Swansea University, Dr Mauro Ferrari of Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas, and Dr Inês Mendes Pinto from the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Portugal. 
Exosomes are particles produced by all cells in the body and are from 30-130 nanometres in size – a nanometre is one-billionth of a metre.  They act as biological signalling systems, communicating between cells, carrying proteins, lipids, DNA and RNA.  They drive biological processes, from modulating gene expression to transmitting information through breast milk.
Though discovered in 1983, the full potential of exosomes is only gradually being revealed.  The researchers show that the nanoparticles’ possible medical benefits fall into three broad categories: 

• Detecting disease – by acting as disease-specific biomarkers
• Activating immune responses to boost immunity
• Treating diseases  – serving as the vehicle for drugs, for example bearing cancer therapies as their payload, to target tumours

One of the most useful properties of exosomes is that they are able to cross barriers such as the plasma membrane of cells, or the blood/brain barrier.  This makes them well-suited to delivering therapeutic molecules in a very targeted way.
The potential benefits of exosomes can be seen in the wide range of research projects – cited in the paper – already either completed or under way, in areas such as:

• Improved testing for prostate cancer 
• A small-cell lung cancer trial
• Stem cell-derived exosomes strengthening heart muscles
• Regeneration of muscle and tissue
• Parkinson’s
• Diabetes

The team caution that there is more to do before research into exosomes translates into new techniques and treatments.  Side-effects need to be considered, and a standardised approach to isolating, characterising and storing exosomes will need to be developed. 
Researchers will also need to ensure that the properties of exosomes do not end up causing harm: for example they can transfer drug resistance and pacify the immune system.
Nevertheless, the potential is very clear, with the team describing exosomes as “increasingly promising”.
Professor Steve Conlan of Swansea University Medical School, one of the authors of the paper, said:
“Our survey of research into exosomes shows clearly that they offer enormous potential as a basis for detecting and treating disease. 

Swansea University
www.swansea.ac.uk/media-centre/latest-research/tinynanoparticlesoffersignificantpotentialindetectingandtreatingdisease-newreview.php