Recent Patents on Biomarkers (Discontinued) - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2013

Cardiac disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and is likely to remain a major challenge into the 21st century because of population aging and global epidemic of obesity. Primary prevention is the most effective way to reduce the disease burden but has produced limited success due to challenges in its societal implementation and individual compliance. The alternative, complementary approach could be secondary prevention to slow the progress of disease in its earliest stages, and biomarkers can contribute to the success by improving risk stratification and also providing surrogate endpoints to enable more rapid performance of clinical studies to develop tailored treatment. MicroRNAs (miRs) are small, non-coding RNA molecules that play important regulatory roles in gene expression. MiRs are generally considered to act as intracellular mediators essential for normal cardiac function and their deregulated expression profiles have often been associated with cardiovascular diseases. Recent discoveries demonstrated that miRs circulate in a stable form through many body fluids including blood, opening the possibility that circulating miRs can serve as diagnostic, prognostic or predictive markers for a variety of cardiovascular diseases including acute myocardial infarction and heart failure. Given that each specified miR has its unique sets of target genes, development of miR biomarkers together with identification of the target mRNAs may have utility for pharmacological intervention. This review summarizes the literature on miRs as cardiac biomarkers, followed by a summary of recent patents that utilize miRs as diagnostic markers of heart disease.

Nervous system tumors include a wide variety of entities, classified according to histopathological features or their location within the CNS. The high grade gliomas - anaplastic astrocytoma (WHO grade III) and glioblastoma (WHO grade IV) – have a very poor prognosis and, despite intensive conventional therapy, the median survival rate for patients with GBM is approximately 1 year. Investigation on molecular level of glioblastoma cells revealed over activation in response to growth factors and subsequent activation of several signaling pathways such as EGFR-MAPK, PI-3K/Akt and Notch. In the last years, there were an increasing number of patents disclosing new molecular methods to diagnose, stratify or treat patients with glioblastoma, some of them being reviewed in the present article.

In spite of recent advances in colon cancer treatment, patients with advanced disease have a poor prognosis. Thus, early diagnosis of the disease, associated with development of new therapeutic strategies, is essential to improve the survival of these patients. In this context, the identification of new biomarkers that can help detect, classify and define the prognosis of patients with colon cancer is of great interest. To date, there are no ideal biomarkers for colon cancer. The most commonly used colon cancer biomarkers, CA19.9 and the carcinoembryonic antigen, are both insufficient for diagnosis and prognosis in the early stages of disease due to their low specificity and sensitivity. However, recent advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms of colon cancer carcinogenesis, and its vascular and lymphatic spread, are allowing the detection of new potential biomarkers to obtain early diagnoses and to improve the accuracy of these patients’ prognosis. This research has enabled the development of a large number of patents in recent years. This review focuses on the most recent colon cancer biomarker patents, based on the detection of genetic, epigenetic, protein and metabolic changes, and provides an overview of the biomarker impact on diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring treatment and the detection of relapse of these tumors.

Throughout the scientific community, early detection is considered as the best form of cancer prevention. However, there has been a lack of suitable and reliable early detection markers. For example, CA-125 has been at the forefront of monitoring and treatment of ovarian cancer but it is a poor biomarker with a sensitivity level of 40%, indicating that the need for more promising early detection methods is imperative. Recently, microRNAs (miRs) have become the focus of attention because they regulate various physiological and pathological processes by repressing target genes. More importantly, miRs have shown to be aberrantly expressed in many diseases, especially in cancers. Here, we review literatures on miRs functioning as cancer biomarkers followed by recent patents examining miRs that can serve as biomarkers in ovarian cancer. For example, patent US2011166041A1 used miRs as biomarkers in generating a diagnostic/ therapeutic strategy for gynecological cancer. Patent US20100249213 examined miR signatures in ovarian cancer to determine prognostic, diagnostic and predictive options. Patent US20110275534 generated miR-based methods for ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment. Patent US20120015049 investigated methods for predicting and improving a chemotherapy response to treat ovarian cancer. In conclusion, we hope that this review encourages further research of miRs into cancer biomarker field.

In the recent years, a large number of potential biomarkers for asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have been described. Biomarkers derive from a variety of sources (bronchioalveolar lavage fluid, sputum, exhaled breath, and blood), provide complementary information to ascertain disease diagnosis, stage, activity/progression and/or treatment responses. The present review highlights the current literature and patents in the field with potential increase in disease control and therapeutic effectiveness to be granted in the near future.

The aim of the study was to verify the usefulness of biomarkers in lung cancer. Thus, serum levels of tumor markers, including Pro-gastrin-releasing peptide (ProGRP), Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and Cyfra 21-1 were evaluated competitively in benign and malignant lung diseases. Serum samples of 469 consecutive patients were investigated in two different groups. Group 1(NSE, ProGRP) contained 90 cases of benign lung diseases and 140 patients with lung cancer, including 50 cases of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and 90 cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Group 2 (Cyfra 21-1) enrolled 110 cases of benign lung disorders and 129 patients with lung malignancy, containing 30 cases of SCLC and 99 cases of NSCLC. Results of group 2 were compared to a control group of 80 healthy individuals. Results demonstrated statistically significant difference between benign and malignant lung diseases using tumor markers mentioned above. Further, data analysis of evaluated tumor markers in small cell lung cancer revealed, that NSE and ProGRP are highly significant tumor markers in this histological subtype. Regarding to NSCLC, Cyfra 21-1 proved to be the marker of choice in patients with large cell lung cancer. The paper also outlines some recent patents.