/ en /news/injectable-agents-could-improve-liquid-biopsy-cancer-detection-and-monitoring <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block 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field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--sidebar-articles sidebar-articles"> <div class="sidebar-articles__col"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Related News</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-content-reference field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations"><picture> <source 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improves accuracy of DNA sequencing 1000-fold to detect rare genetic mutations</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source 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(max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Thu, 18 Jan 2024 19:00:41 +0000 Corie Lok 5556261 at /news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block 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field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--sidebar-articles sidebar-articles"> <div class="sidebar-articles__col"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Related News</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-content-reference field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=A8WROihq 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz" alt="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" title="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New method improves accuracy of DNA sequencing 1000-fold to detect rare genetic mutations</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=swN0uE_L 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Thu, 27 Apr 2023 16:00:00 +0000 adicorat 1281991 at /news/broad-discovery-center-cambridge-opens-public-october <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block 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field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--sidebar-articles sidebar-articles"> <div class="sidebar-articles__col"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Related News</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-content-reference field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=A8WROihq 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz" alt="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" title="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New method improves accuracy of DNA sequencing 1000-fold to detect rare genetic mutations</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=swN0uE_L 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Mon, 19 Sep 2022 14:53:09 +0000 kzusi@broadinstitute.org 1195701 at /news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block 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field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--sidebar-articles sidebar-articles"> <div class="sidebar-articles__col"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Related News</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-content-reference field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations"><picture> <source 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srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=A8WROihq 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz" alt="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" title="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New method improves accuracy of DNA sequencing 1000-fold to detect rare genetic mutations</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source 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(max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Thu, 17 Mar 2022 17:30:20 +0000 kzusi@broadinstitute.org 1127891 at /news/personalized-blood-biopsies-demonstrate-potential-early-warning-signal-breast-cancer-recurrence <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block block-better-social-sharing-buttons block-social-sharing-buttons-block"> <div style="display: none"><link rel="preload" href="/modules/contrib/better_social_sharing_buttons/assets/dist/sprites/social-icons--no-color.svg" as="image" type="image/svg+xml" crossorigin="anonymous"></div> <div class="social-sharing-buttons"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=/taxonomy/term/1821/feed&amp;title=" target="_blank" title="Share to Facebook" aria-label="Share to Facebook" class="social-sharing-buttons-button share-facebook" rel="noopener"> <svg aria-hidden="true" width="32px" height="32px" style="border-radius:100%;"> <use href="/modules/contrib/better_social_sharing_buttons/assets/dist/sprites/social-icons--no-color.svg#facebook" /> </svg> </a> <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=+/taxonomy/term/1821/feed" target="_blank" title="Share to X" aria-label="Share to X" class="social-sharing-buttons-button share-x" rel="noopener"> <svg aria-hidden="true" width="32px" 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field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--sidebar-articles sidebar-articles"> <div class="sidebar-articles__col"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Related News</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-content-reference field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations"><picture> <source 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(max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Fri, 13 Mar 2020 14:09:26 +0000 kzusi@broadinstitute.org 627566 at /developing-diagnostics-and-treatments/blood-biopsies <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block block-better-social-sharing-buttons block-social-sharing-buttons-block"> <div style="display: none"><link rel="preload" href="/modules/contrib/better_social_sharing_buttons/assets/dist/sprites/social-icons--no-color.svg" as="image" type="image/svg+xml" crossorigin="anonymous"></div> <div class="social-sharing-buttons"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=/taxonomy/term/1821/feed&amp;title=" target="_blank" title="Share to Facebook" aria-label="Share to Facebook" class="social-sharing-buttons-button share-facebook" rel="noopener"> <svg aria-hidden="true" width="32px" height="32px" style="border-radius:100%;"> <use href="/modules/contrib/better_social_sharing_buttons/assets/dist/sprites/social-icons--no-color.svg#facebook" /> </svg> </a> <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=+/taxonomy/term/1821/feed" target="_blank" title="Share to X" aria-label="Share to X" class="social-sharing-buttons-button share-x" rel="noopener"> <svg aria-hidden="true" width="32px" 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field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--sidebar-articles sidebar-articles"> <div class="sidebar-articles__col"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Related News</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-content-reference field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=A8WROihq 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz" alt="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" title="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New method improves accuracy of DNA sequencing 1000-fold to detect rare genetic mutations</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=swN0uE_L 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Thu, 04 Apr 2019 18:00:29 +0000 mnemchuk@broadinstitute.org 495171 at /news/broad-institute-launches-gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block 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srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=A8WROihq 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz" alt="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" title="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New method improves accuracy of DNA sequencing 1000-fold to detect rare genetic mutations</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=swN0uE_L 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Tue, 19 Feb 2019 22:15:27 +0000 David Cameron 462366 at /news/new-techniques-give-blood-biopsies-greater-promise <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block 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srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=A8WROihq 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz" alt="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" title="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New method improves accuracy of DNA sequencing 1000-fold to detect rare genetic mutations</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=swN0uE_L 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Mon, 06 Nov 2017 10:06:24 +0000 kzusi@broadinstitute.org 135421 at /news/blood-biopsy-offers-new-view-tumor-evolution-multiple-myeloma <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Injectable agents could improve liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at ӳ����ý and MIT report the first injectable “priming agents” for liquid biopsy, which increased circulating tumor DNA by more than 10-fold in mice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Kat J. McAlpine </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-01-18T14:00:41-05:00" title="Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 14:00" class="datetime">January 18, 2024</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=kzI9jrPU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=B4OjAdaL 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nJQx2gyU 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=1NIh-eXP 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/Defending_DNA_v3.png?h=d3e04ee7&amp;itok=nkdMlGgD" alt="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." title="Graphic depicting an agent preventing DNA from being engulfed by an immune cell." typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ����ý Communications </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> One of the new "priming agents" works by preventing immune cells from engulfing tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block 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field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--sidebar-articles sidebar-articles"> <div class="sidebar-articles__col"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Related News</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-content-reference field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=J7rO_2eB 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ow6wYBB1 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=A8WROihq 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/2Editorial-DNAMutatedCells.png?itok=Ietihbzz" alt="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" title="DNA showing a mutation inside cells" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-method-improves-accuracy-dna-sequencing-1000-fold-detect-rare-genetic-mutations" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New method improves accuracy of DNA sequencing 1000-fold to detect rare genetic mutations</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood"><picture> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=5b9aVepE 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=eEmplbVw 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=swN0uE_L 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/news/images/2022/MAESTRO%20Blood%20Biopsy_x3.jpg?h=f297c200&amp;itok=OZga7M_X" alt="Ricardo Job-Reese, ӳ����ý Communications" typeof="foaf:Image"> </picture></a> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/new-technique-improves-detection-cancer-dna-blood" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New technique improves detection of cancer DNA in blood</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Scientists have developed two agents, made of therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies, that could be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA in blood using a technology called liquid biopsy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Liquid biopsies promise to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by &nbsp;detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood. But the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test.</p> <p>To overcome this, a team from the ӳ����ý of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed two injectable “priming agents” that briefly slow down the clearance of circulating tumor DNA from the body, allowing levels of this DNA to temporarily increase in blood and be collected for testing. The team says that these priming agents could improve the performance of liquid biopsies for cancer and potentially other diseases — akin to how contrast agents are given to patients to enhance medical imaging scans. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank"><em>Science</em></a>.</p> <p><a href="/bios/viktor-adalsteinsson">Viktor Adalsteinsson</a>, director of the <a href="/node/450321">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a> at ӳ����ý, <a href="/bios/sangeeta-bhatia">Sangeeta Bhatia</a>, an institute member at ӳ����ý, a professor at MIT and director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at MIT’s Koch Institute, and J. Christopher Love, an associate member at ӳ����ý and a professor at MIT’s Koch Institute, are co-senior authors of the study.</p> <p>“Liquid biopsy stands to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed and treated but requires higher sensitivity,” said Adalsteinsson. “To improve sensitivity, we sought to address for the first time the biology of circulating tumor DNA clearance, recognizing this is a fundamental hurdle upstream of most liquid biopsy tests which, if solved, could broadly benefit patients.”</p> <p>One of the priming agents consists of nanoparticles, which, like circulating tumor DNA, are consumed by immune cells in the liver. “We thought we could design a safe dummy nanoparticle to distract those immune cells and leave the circulating tumor DNA alone so that it could be at a higher concentration in blood samples,” Bhatia said.</p> <p>The other agent comprises engineered antibodies that bind to tumor DNA, protecting them from destruction by circulating enzymes. Both strategies — therapeutic nanoparticles and antibodies — are already well-established forms of medicine for use in humans.</p> <p>“Existing liquid biopsy technologies are limited by the amount of tumor DNA you have in the tube of blood,” Love said. “So we started to think about how we might inject something beforehand to help boost or enhance that signal.”</p> <p>Carmen Martin-Alonso, a graduate student in Bhatia’s lab, spearheaded the design of the nanoparticles. Shervin Tabrizi, a postdoctoral associate in Love’s lab and the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, took the lead on engineering the antibodies. And Kan Xiong, a research scientist at the Gerstner Center at the ӳ����ý, led an effort to optimize the analysis of single droplets of mouse blood for circulating tumor DNA.&nbsp;</p> <p>In mouse studies, the team showed that administering these priming agents one to two hours before drawing a blood sample each increased the amount of circulating tumor DNA in a blood sample by more than 10-fold. This improved the sensitivity of detecting cancer by liquid biopsy in mice with low tumor burden from below 10 percent to more than 75 percent. Circulating tumor DNA levels in the animals returned to baseline within a day.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The ability to get peak activity of these agents within a couple of hours, followed by their rapid clearance, means that someone could go to their doctor's office, receive an agent like this, and then give their blood for the test itself, all within one visit,” Love said. “This feature bodes well for the potential to translate this concept into clinical use.”</p> <p>The team says their priming agents represent new platform technologies that could in principle enhance liquid biopsies not only for cancer but also for neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, deep-seeded infectious diseases, and prenatal genetic testing, as well as for the detection of other scarce analytes of clinical significance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg,” Adalsteinsson said. “Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This research was supported by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the Bridge Project (a partnership between the Koch Institute and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center), the MIT Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research, fellowship funding from “La Caixa”, The Ludwig Center Fellowship at Koch Institute, an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper Cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Martin-Alonso C, Tabrizi S, Xiong K, et al. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2341" target="_blank">Priming agents transiently reduce the clearance of cell-free DNA to improve liquid biopsies</a>. <em>Science</em>. Online January 18, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2341</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/gerstner-center-cancer-diagnostics" hreflang="en">Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/blood-biopsies" hreflang="en">Blood biopsies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/cancer" hreflang="en">Cancer</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Wed, 02 Nov 2016 17:48:05 +0000 leah@broadinstitute.org 13721 at