Myriad RBM's DiscoveryMAP platform identifies protein biomarkers linked to CV events in diabetes patients

Nov 17 2015

Protein Biomarkers May Accelerate the Future of Personalized Medicine for CV Disease

Myriad RBM, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), today announced that its DiscoveryMAP^® platform successfully identified combinations of 15 protein biomarkers associated with cardiovascular (CV) events or death in people with pre-diabetes or early type 2 diabetes, according to a study published by the journal Circulation.

“Cardiovascular diseases are one of the leading causes of deaths globally,” said Riccardo Perfetti, M.D., vice president Medical Affairs, Global Diabetes at Sanofi, which sponsored the study. “We are optimistic that as we move toward personalized medicine, cardiovascular biomarkers will help us predict future events and possibly develop tailored treatment plans for patients that will save more lives.”

In the paper titled, “Identifying Novel Biomarkers for Cardiovascular Events or Death in People with Dysglycemia,” researchers at the Population Health Research Institute and Sanofi used Myriad RBM’s DiscoveryMAP platform to evaluate 237 cardiometabolic biomarkers in serum from 8,401 participants in the completed Outcome Reduction with Initial Glargine Intervention (ORIGIN) trial. Results of the assays were analyzed to identify biomarkers that provided better estimates of the risk of future CV events or death than could be estimated from standard clinical and biochemical data alone. The analysis identified a novel combination of 10 biomarkers that, when added to clinical risk factors, can find people with dysglycemia who are at higher risk of heart attack, stroke or CV death. Moreover, these 10 biomarkers, plus an additional five, had the greatest impact on the ability to predict death.

“Our study is one of the largest scientific investigations in history to identify specific cardiovascular biomarkers associated with serious cardiovascular outcomes, including heart attacks, strokes and death,” said Hertzel Gerstein, M.D., lead study investigator and deputy director, Population Health Research Institute. “Our results highlight the potential value of cardiovascular biomarkers for identifying people with dysglycemia at the highest risk of future events.”

DiscoveryMAP is a comprehensive, quantitative, immunoassay service product that measures more than 300 human proteins. It is the culmination of 15 years of assay development for cytokines, chemokines, metabolic markers, hormones, growth factors, tissue remodeling proteins, angiogenesis markers, acute phase reactants, cancer markers, kidney damage markers, CNS biomarkers and other important circulating proteins.

“This is another demonstration that our DiscoveryMAP technology can successfully identify panels of biomarkers with important diagnostic and prognostic applications. We believe that the protein biomarkers characterized by the PHRI and Sanofi teams may identify people at higher risk for cardiovascular events,” said Ralph McDade, Ph.D., president of Myriad RBM. “Based on these very encouraging findings, we are pursuing additional research collaborations to further develop panels of protein biomarkers with application for cardiometabolic disorders.”