Ischemic heart disease and stroke are the world’s leading cause of death. Current therapeutic tools show large variation in efficacy and a narrow therapeutic window, with life-threatening complications caused by over- or underdosing. Current platelet function tests fail at guiding treatment decisions.
With the thrombomiR™ kit, TAmiRNA and advanceCOR want to meet the demand for reliable platelet function biomarkers in order to accelerate the development of novel treatments and increase efficient use of existing antiplatelet drugs.
advanceCOR focuses on drug development in cardiovascular diseases, and aims at providing novel anti-thrombotic drugs together with optimal companion diagnostics. TAmiRNA is a frontrunner in the discovery and validation of microRNA biomarkers in liquid biopsies. Together, TAmiRNA and advanceCOR will collect high quality data that support the use of thrombomiR™ in various preclinical and clinical contexts, and will enable recommendation by EMA/FDA for utilization in clinical research and cardiovascular drug development.
The thrombomiR™ kit is a minimally invasive blood test that enables the targeted detection and quantitation of platelet-derived microRNAs in blood plasma. The concentrations of these microRNAs increase upon platelet activation, and decrease as a result of platelet inhibition. Thus, these biomarkers allow conclusions on e.g. efficacy of antiplatelet therapy, bleeding tendency or risk of cardiovascular events, and thus have the great potential for use as prognostic, predictive, pharmacodynamic, or efficacy biomarker in preclinical and clinical testing.
The thrombomiR™ kit includes all the reagents needed to isolate RNA from plasma samples and to quantify 10 platelet biomarkers and 6 controls, as well as a software app for streamlined data analysis. The thrombomiR™ kit is the first platelet function test that can be performed on both fresh and frozen (up to 10 years) plasma samples. An additional benefit of the assay is its broader informative value independent of the activation signal and – in contrast to conventional in vitro platelet function testing – the measurement of a signal generated in vivo.
TAmiRNA specializes in technologies for profiling levels of blood-circulating microRNAs and developing multi-parametric classification algorithms (“signatures”). TAmiRNA uses these technologies to develop minimal-invasive diagnostic tests for drug development, early diagnosis and prognosis of disease, and as companion diagnostic tests to support treatment decisions.
advanceCOR is a drug developing biotechnology company which focuses on personalized medicine in cardiovascular diseases located in Martinsried near Munich, Germany. advanceCOR owns several clinical and preclinical projects generated from its own scientific program or based on the founders’ academic research.