Mursla Bio unlocks new biomarker discovery approach in liquid biopsy and precision medicine

16-May-2023 - Last updated on 16-May-2023 at 13:59 GMT

Mursla Bio will present its novel tissue-specific Extracellular Vesicle (EV) isolation technology NEXPLOR at the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) annual meeting.

At ISEV2023, taking place May 17-21 in Seattle, US, Mursla will outline how NEXPLOR has been applied to discover novel liver cancer biomarkers for the surveillance of individuals at high risk.

According to the techbio startup, this will pave the way for a new approach to biomarker discovery in liquid biopsy and precision medicine.

Extracellular Vesicles

Extracellular Vesicles are released by every cell in the body, acting as a snapshot of cellular biological activity. They can be found in biofluids such as blood and present, an ideal avenue for the future of non-invasive disease detection and prevention, including cancer.

Tissue-derived EVs are extremely scarce compared to all other EVs found in circulation at the same time. This makes it challenging to locate and extract their molecular and cellular information.

For instance, nearly all EVs present in a blood draw will be derived from blood cells such as platelets, erythrocytes or immune cells, with a minute portion coming from tissues such as liver, lung or kidney. Conventional isolation techniques cannot distinguish between EVs based on their origin, thus limiting progress in disease biomarker discovery.

To address these challenges, Mursla Bio has developed a “novel and robust” method to isolate tissue-specific EVs from blood, together with a workflow to analyse their diverse multi-omics content.

Part of Mursla’s ExoPheno platform, NEXPLOR has been engineered to improve the translation of EV-based diagnostics into clinics.

This complements its ultrasensitive validation technology, NEXOS, which has been designed to offer a high throughput and clinically compatible In Vitro Diagnostics test from the newly discovered panel of tissue-EV biomarkers.

Pierre Arsène, founder and CEO of Mursla Bio, said: “Imagine you could examine any bodily tissue, at any time, without resorting to invasive procedures. This would completely transform how we manage cancer and chronic disease."

“The liquid biopsy field has been built on that principle. Unfortunately, existing approaches based on circulating free DNA have been restrictive, providing only a limited snapshot of cellular activity.

“This is because they are not tissue-specific and overlook the complexity of biological processes. We believe our method marks a substantial progression and have initiated a clinical study to deliver our first liquid biopsy test, which we expect to complete by early 2024. We aim to launch in the US in 2025.”