Detecting disease associated biomarkers by luminescence modulating phages

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Biomarker Discovery
• Medical Diagnostics

Background:

• Biomarker assays, including antibody-based methods for prostate cancer, often lack specificity and yield ambiguous results.
• Elevated biomarker proteins can occur due to non-specific reasons, complicating accurate disease assessment.
• There is a need for novel, sensitive, and specific methods for disease biomarker detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and assess a novel luminescence modulating phage-based assay for detecting biomarkers.
• To evaluate the assay's performance in analyzing C-reactive protein (CRP) and prostate cancer biomarkers in urine.
• To differentiate between lethal prostate cancer samples and control samples using this unique phage technology.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a specialized biopanning process to engineer phages capable of capturing a detection dye.
• Employed luminescence modulation where biomarker molecules interfere with phage-dye interaction, altering reporter luminescence.
• Tested the method using C-reactive protein (CRP) in a controlled environment and then applied it to urine samples for prostate cancer detection.

Main Results:

• Successfully simulated the detection process using C-reactive protein (CRP) in a controlled chemical environment.
• Achieved 80% sensitivity and 75% specificity in detecting Grade Group (GG) 4 and 5 prostate cancer in urine samples.
• Demonstrated that altered reporter luminescence, observable even with the naked eye, correlates with biomarker presence.

Conclusions:

• Luminescence modulating phages offer a simple and potentially alternative method for disease biomarker screening.
• The developed phage assay shows significant potential for the early and accurate detection of aggressive prostate cancer.
• This innovative approach could improve diagnostic ambiguity associated with traditional biomarker assays.