Ancient enzyme could boost power of liquid biopsies to detect and profile cancers

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Life Science Weekly -- Scientists are developing a set of medical tests called liquid biopsies that can rapidly detect the presence of cancers, infectious diseases and other conditions from only a small blood sample. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are developing a new tool for liquid biopsy that could soon provide doctors with a more complete picture of an individual’s disease, improving their chances of finding the best treatment, while also sparing patients the pain, inconvenience and long wait times associated with surgical biopsies.

Alan Lambowitz, a professor in the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology and the Department of Molecular Biosciences, and his team are studying an ancient enzyme in bacteria that can be used to detect bits of genetic material shed by cancer or other diseased cells into a patient’s bloodstream.

Many current liquid biopsies can detect DNA in blood; others can detect RNA, although they tend to miss many key RNA biomarkers and misinterpret others. But this ancient enzyme, described in a paper published in the journal Molecular Cell, detects the full range of RNAs with much higher accuracy, …

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(2017-12-05), Ancient enzyme could boost power of liquid biopsies to detect and profile cancers, Life Science Weekly, 307, ISSN: 1552-2474, BUTTER® ID: 014784976