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Washington, DC--July 30, 2013--SISCAPA Assay Technologies, Inc. (SAT) announced publication of a study in Clinical Chemistry demonstrating that a SISCAPA-MALDI-TOF assay for protein C inhibitor can help identify patients at risk for recurrence of prostate cancer after radiotherapy. The assay measures a proteotypic peptide of protein C inhibitor enriched from tryptic digests of patient serum by anti-peptide antibodies (the SISCAPA workflow), followed by quantitation using simple MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. A significant post-treatment decline in concentration of the PCI peptide analyte was observed in patients who eventually experienced cancer recurrence. The publication, entitled “Quantification of a Proteotypic Peptide from Protein C Inhibitor by LC-Free SISCAPA-MALDI Mass Spectrometry: Application to Identification of Recurrence of Prostate Cancer”, results from an ongoing collaboration between SAT and Bruker Daltonics, Inc. to exploit the high precision, throughput, robustness and ease of use of MALDI-TOF instruments as an alternative to LC-MS technology currently used in many SISCAPA assays. All SISCAPA-MALDI assays are currently for research use only, and not for use in diagnostic procedures.
The sensitivity and precision obtained using the SISCAPA-MALDI-TOF workflow demonstrate effective purification of the target peptides without chromatography, substantially simplifying the measurement of protein biomarkers. The elimination of complex and time-consuming liquid chromatography separations typically used in mass spectrometric assays greatly decreases the complexity of sample handling and sample introduction, which, together with advances in automated preparation of MALDI target plates, enables large scale biomarker verification studies currently considered impractical. The published results were obtained using several different MALDI-TOF mass spectrometers, including research grade instruments using reflectron mode operation, such as Bruker’s autoflex speed and with a linear only benchtop microflex LT instrument, which is widely used in clinical microbiology. For this study, no quantitation was performed in TOF/TOF mode, as the specificity of the SISCAPA workflow for isolation of the target peptides limited the need for MS/MS confirmation of the identity of the analyte.
Dr. Detlev Suckau, Director of Proteomics at Bruker Daltonics, commented: “The results of the joint work prove that SISCAPA peptide enrichment technology coupled with MALDI-TOF is very suitable for peptide/protein quantification in clinical samples and allows high throughput which should facilitate validation of biomarkers. This is a very positive development, as previously many proteomics researchers may have considered MALDI-TOF as primarily a qualitative or semi-quantitative platform. We are very pleased to continue to work with Leigh Anderson and the team at SISCAPA Assay Technologies on these ground-breaking biomarker quantification and validation developments. The results in this publication suggest that the use of the ‘LC-free’ SISCAPA-MALDI-TOF workflow in pre-clinical research is robust, precise and applicable to clinical specimens. This is an emerging market for Bruker that will further increase the visibility of our very successful MALDI-TOF product line in biomedical research.”
Leigh Anderson, Ph.D., the CEO and founder of SISCAPA Assay Technologies, and inventor of SISCAPA, added: “We are delighted to be working with Bruker, the leader in MALDI-TOF technology, to advance the precision and throughput of SISCAPA biomarker assays. Our joint paper demonstrates that the very high precision of MALDI-TOF for peptide quantitation using internal standards can be maintained using clinical serum samples and establishes a solid basis for further exploring the utility of SISCAPA-MALDI-TOF in biomarker verification and preclinical research. As a company devoted to the development and application of SISCAPA assays, we are excited that the addition of this robust and easy MALDI-TOF workflow to SISCAPA will not only increase the productivity of labs using SISCAPA, but will also increase the adoption of SISCAPA assays by the biomarker research community and ultimately by clinical laboratories.”
About SISCAPA Assay Technologies, Inc.
SISCAPA Assay Technologies (SAT) is focused on creating SISCAPA® assays for a growing menu of high-value protein biomarkers, with the long-term goal of enabling sensitive, precise, high-throughput measurement of every human protein in clinical and other samples. Additional information about SISCAPA affinity-MS technology, available reagents, and licensing opportunities is available at http://www.SISCAPA.com.
Source: SISCAPA Assay Technologies, Inc.
Leigh Anderson, CEO: +1 301-728-1451, leighanderson@siscapa.com
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