Products & Technology
Thymidine Kinase (TK)
AroCell is developing a new biomarker family (TK 210). These markers are measuring cell growth and based on the protein thymidine kinase (TK). TK is the only marker for cell growth that can be measured directly in a blood sample. Cancer is associated with increased cell division and most cancer types have been found to release pathological levels of TK. TK is formed when cells grow at a rapid rate. It is released into the blood circulation and can be measured in a normal blood sample. Taking a blood sample saves time, reduce cost and is more convenient for the patient than cell biopsies or imaging techniques.
The invention
The product is based on a patented technology. The basic invention is the result of many years research at the Karolinska Institute. It is a method to produce antibodies against specific exposed epitopes on the TK molecule. The new antibodies have already been evaluated in an early product prototype ELISA method. A new updated ELISA is now under development, which use one polyclonal and one monoclonal antibody. All results prove that the antibodies from AroCell are able to detect TK with the required sensitivity, and can be used in the development of the new TK 210 products.
Picture above: A structural model of thymidine kinase (monomer). The part corresponding to the marker “XPA-210″ is highlighted in red.
TK as tumor marker
Most tumor markers used in clinical routine today are related to a certain type of tumor and the concentration of the marker reflects the tumor mass. Since TK measures cell growth, it is a complimentary marker to other traditional tumor markers. TK makes it possible, at an early stage after treatment has commenced, to take a simple blood test and determine if the tumor is still growing or not, and, as a result, demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment. With traditional tumor markers the result of the treatment is not seen until the tumor mass has changed. TK can, therefore, be used as an earlier marker for monitoring of patients during treatment and for long-term follow-up after treatment has been concluded to monitor for potential relapse
It is normal for every cancer patient to be monitored 2-4 times a year, depending on the type of tumor, over a 5-10 year period. This means that each and every patient will benefit from repeated tests, which is commercially favorable for AroCell over a long period of time
The AroCell TK 210 Product Line – First product
TK-immuno/hem will be launched as a test for monitoring and follow up of blood cancer. TK is already an established marker for hematological cancer, but with another more complicated test procedure. The first clinical evaluation comparing the two methods shows an excellent correlation between the activity based test and TK 210 ELISA. However the ELISA method has the advantage of being a more general technology, which can be used in all laboratories using already available equipment.
Second product
AroCell´s second product will be designed for prognosis and monitoring of solid tumors such as prostate and breast. Development of the product for solid tumors will start as soon as TK 210/hem is launched and it is expected to be ready for the market in the beginning of 2013.
Other targets
Other possible applications are for monitoring and follow up of bladder cancer, early detection and monitoring of ovarian cancer and early detection of relapse in breast cancer. TK will have an additional value to existing tools in solid tumors for prognosis, monitoring and follow-up. Earlier studies and work have already shown that TK 210 can measure TK from solid tumors in blood, but an adaptation to the specific cancer form is needed. The currently available activity based test cannot detect TK in the blood from patients with solid tumors.