Angle PLC Announces Parsortix Unlocks Opportunities For Drug Discovery

• Use of Parsortix system in pre-clinical model unlocks opportunities for drug discovery
• Harvested CTCs reveal gene expression profile associated with development and progression of brain metastasis in melanoma
• Researchers suggest such profiling could prove to be "pivotal" to prescribing more targeted treatments in this setting

ANGLE plc a world-leading liquid biopsy company with innovative circulating tumour cell (CTC) diagnostic solutions for use in research, drug development and clinical oncology, is delighted to announce the publication of breakthrough work by researchers at the University of New Mexico, US, into the role of CTC gene expression in the progression of melanoma brain metastasis. The researchers used the Parsortix system to harvest CTCs for analysis and concluded that "… gene expression in CTCs could be pivotal to prescribing more targeted treatment based on the needs of the patient."

In this study, pre-clinical mouse models of melanoma brain metastasis were split into four treatment groups and two cancer drugs were tested individually and together vs. placebo. Blood samples were analysed using the Parsortix system to harvest CTCs. The authors found that using the two drugs together was the most effective therapeutic regime, reducing tumour burden, metastasis and CTC count.

This research provides further evidence of the capability of the Parsortix system to be used for the harvesting of CTCs for analysis in pre-clinical mouse models.

The global market for preclinical clinical research organisations exceeded a valuation of US$ 5B in 2022 and is expected to achieve a 7.5% CAGR over the next 10 years owing to increasing R&D expenditure on early-stage development combined with the growing number of drugs in preclinical development.

ANGLE Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Newland, commented:
"The use of CTC biomarkers in clinical trials is a rapidly growing field enabling longitudinal monitoring of transcriptomic and proteomic changes. ANGLE can provide pharma customers with a complete range of services to support preclinical and clinical drug development. This includes standardised and validated protocols for analysing CTCs including the established techniques of IF, dPCR and NGS, and the capability to deliver bespoke assays to identify drug targets and ascertain therapeutic efficacy."