Abnova Introduces LiquidCell™ Negative Enrichment Circulating Tumor Cell Platform for the Clinical Pathology Market

Neihu, Taiwan (May 06, 2019)

Abnova announced today the introduction of LiquidCell™ negative enrichment circulating tumor cell platform for the clinical pathology market. Current non-invasive, liquid biopsy methods include circulating tumor cell (CTC), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), and exosome. The isolation of CTC represents a revolutionary breakthrough in the detection and monitoring of cancers by enabling the isolation of viable metastatic cancer cells in the blood stream and characterization of their protein and molecular signatures. Clinical pathology is gatekeeper of all tissue- and cell-based diagnostics before medical treatments and interventions are prescribed to patients. However, penetration of CTC applications into this market has been hampered by the preexisting incompatibility with instrumentations and standardized workflow in the clinical pathology laboratories, and by a priori requirement of ISO and GMP control of bioreagents used on clinical samples. Overcoming these obstacles represents an untapped market opportunity in the new era of liquid biopsy and personalized medicine.

Abnova’s LiquidCell™ platform utilizes a revolutionary CellBeads SLBx™, a high recovery SuperSlide™, rolling circle amplification iRCAx™ and mutaFISH™ bioreagents to enable CTC isolation and detection. CellBeads SLBx™ are lipid bilayer-coated magnetic beads for non-destructive removal of WBCs while minimizing the concomitant loss of CTCs. SuperSlide™ is a specialty-coated, slide with dimensions comparable to standardized pathology slide for maximal recovery of the unbiased CTCs. iRCAx™ are oligo-conjugated antibodies which hybridize with a complementary probe enabling a phi29 DNA polymerase driven rolling circle amplification to provide the highest signal detection of low-density protein expression by the evolving CTCs. mutaFISH™ combines in situ padlock probes and fluorescent rolling circle amplification for mutation detection at single nucleotide resolution in a single CTC.

Majority of the CTC systems in the world today relies on an antibody-based, positive enrichment to capture and detect the cancer cells. These proprietary instrumentations and chips are not compatible with the pathology standardization used in routine tissue and cell biopsies, and their immuno- and FISH staining methodologies are not compatible with the automated, fluorescent stainers used in the current clinical pathology laboratories. Moreover, their CTC bioreagents do not provide assurance in validation, quality control, and documentation required for robust clinical use. As a result, without a comprehensive assimilation into the mainstream clinical pathology practice, the adoption of CTC applications would be handicapped, thereby undermining the full benefits of liquid biopsy in today’s precision medicine-driven market.