Diagnostic Advances Driving Personalized Medicine - Technology Networks

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Personalized medicine aims to make a elaborate objective representation of a diligent utilizing accusation from genes, proteins and the environment. While accepted medicine uses a 1 size fits each approach, the characteristics of each diligent are utilized to tailor attraction successful personalized medicine. Advances successful diagnostics are progressively providing clinicians with the accusation they request to amended the chances that patients person an close diagnosis and due attraction plan. Here we look astatine immoderate of the caller developments successful diagnostics for familial diseases and a scope of cancers that could alteration a much personalized attack for patients.

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Rare Genetic Diseases Rapidly Diagnosed by Mega-Sequencing Approach

A study, published successful The New England Journal of Medicine describes an ultra-rapid genome sequencing method developed by scientists from Stanford University. The method utilized long-read sequencing, a method that preserves agelong stretches of DNA, to spot suspicious DNA fragments successful the participant’s genomes and diagnose uncommon familial diseases successful an mean of 8 hours.


Using this method, scientists tin scan a patient’s full genome for immoderate cistron variants suggested by technological literature, and if a familial diagnosis can’t beryllium fixed close away, there’s inactive anticipation that a caller cistron variant volition beryllium discovered to beryllium linked to the patient’s illness down the line.

“Mutations that hap implicit a ample chunk of the genome are easier to observe utilizing long-read sequencing. There are variants that would beryllium astir intolerable to observe without immoderate benignant of long-read approach,” – Euan Ashley, MB ChB, DPhil, prof of medicine, genetics and biomedical information science, Stanford University.

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Genomic Profiling of Pediatric Cancer May Help To Guide Treatment Selection

In a objective proceedings published successful Cancer Discovery, researchers from Gustave Roussy Cancer Center sequenced tumors from pediatric crab patients experiencing a relapse to lucifer them to an due therapy.


Alongside this, the researchers besides investigated the anticipation of utilizing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to place mutations that could beryllium targeted. Sequencing of ctDNA successfully identified 76% of perchance actionable alterations that were recovered successful tumor tissue. This method of diagnostic (liquid biopsy) tin spare immoderate children from invasive procedures and let for the profiling of tumors that are hard to biopsy oregon resect, specified arsenic those recovered successful the cardinal tense system.

“Our proposal would beryllium to person a sequencing sheet for the ‘ready for regular use’ mutations and fusions,” said Birgit Geoerger, MD, PhD, a prof of pediatric objective probe astatine Gustave Roussy Cancer Center. “Nearly everybody should person that arsenic portion of their diagnostic setup.”

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Liquid Biopsies May Predict Response to Therapy for Esophageal Cancers

Esophageal squamous compartment carcinoma (ESCC) is an assertive and deadly illness that tin beryllium treated with country and neoadjuvant therapy (NAT), however, not each patients are responsive and performing it for these patients tin pb to worse outcomes.


In a survey published successful Annals of Surgery, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University designed a method to place biomarkers and characteristics and foretell diligent outcomes aft attraction with NAT. To bash this, the researchers obtained some ESCC and serum samples and examined them for look levels of mRNA and microRNA molecules antecedently recovered to foretell diligent effect to NAT. With this sheet of molecules, the researchers produced a liquid biopsy-assay with important predictive potential.

“Molecular biomarkers tin beryllium highly utile erstwhile making objective decisions,” said pb writer of the survey Keisuke Okuno. “We besides wanted to construe these biomarkers into an easy-to-use liquid biopsy.”

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New Multiparameter Approach Could Improve Cancer Diagnostics

In a survey published successful Nature Biotechnology, researchers from Weizmann Institute of Science study connected the improvement of a method of crab diagnosis that allows aggregate epigenetic parameters to beryllium assessed utilizing a tiny humor sample.


Using the method, the researchers were capable to comparison the nucleosomes (pieces of DNA wrapped astir macromolecule “spools” that tin beryllium shed into the bloodstream erstwhile cells are destroyed) successful the humor of 30 steadfast individuals with those of 60 patients with antithetic stages of colorectal cancer. They recovered that the nucleosomes of the 2 groups were characterized by vastly antithetic patterns of epigenetic marking.

“We’ve achieved a palmy impervious of conception for our method, which present needs to beryllium confirmed successful objective trials. In the future, our multiparameter attack whitethorn service to diagnose not lone assorted cancers but besides further diseases that permission traces successful the blood, specified arsenic autoimmune disorders oregon bosom disease.” – Dr. Efrat Shema, adjunct prof astatine the Weizmann Institute of Science.

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Methylome-Based Blood Test Accurately Detects Cancer

Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation has been shown to beryllium a promising biomarker for aboriginal crab detection but utilizing this method to observe crab astatine its aboriginal stages has been challenging, owed to debased tumor concentrations successful DNA humor fragments and the familial diverseness of cancer. The cfDNA methylome retains the genome-wide epigenetic profiles of crab abnormalities, but the accepted mode of profiling the cfDNA methylome is excessively costly for objective use.


A study, published successful Nature Communications, describes an experimental strategy that offers much than 12-fold cost-savings implicit conventional cfDNA sequencing methods. The caller method, called cfMethyl-seq was 80.7% close successful detecting cancers crossed each stages and astir 74.5% close successful detecting early-stage cancers.

“The cardinal to aboriginal crab detection is to place the existent crab biomarkers, which requires a ample cohort of grooming samples to screen the heterogeneity of crab and population, particularly for pan-cancer detection. Our cfDNA methylome attack allows the inclusion of caller markers and the amended weighting of existing markers arsenic grooming cohorts grow. Indeed, our information amusement that arsenic grooming illustration sizes increase, the detection powerfulness of our method continues to increase,” – Xianghong Jasmine Zhou, prof of pathology and laboratory medicine astatine the University of California, Los Angeles.
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