Research into role of immune cells in cancer

RNS Number : 6023P

Angle PLC

11 February 2019

 

For immediate release  11 February 2019

ANGLE plc ("the Company")

HIGH PROFILE RESEARCH USING PARSORTIX HIGHLIGHTS ROLE OF IMMUNE CELLS IN PROMOTING THE SPREAD OF CANCER

New CTC cluster research published in prestigious Nature publication

Further demonstrates the important role for Parsortix in enabling breakthrough developments in the treatment of cancer

ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company, is delighted to announce that its Parsortix^TM system has been utilised in further ground-breaking cancer research into CTC clusters demonstrating that the patient's own immune cells (neutrophils) may actively help the process of metastasis by which the cancer spreads.

The new research, led by Professor Nicola Aceto at the Cancer Metastasis Laboratory, University of Basel, Switzerland (Basel) has been published as a peer-reviewed publication in the prestigious journal Nature. The publication follows other research on CTC clusters led by Professor Aceto, recently published in the journal Cell, which identified drugs which dissociated highly metastatic CTC clusters resulting in a near total elimination of metastasis in animal models.

The research published in Nature identified a subset of circulating tumor cell clusters (CTC clusters, a group of cancer and other cells tethered together as a single mass) using ANGLE's Parsortix system, in which the cluster contains one or more neutrophil (a CTC-neutrophil cluster).  Basel investigated the CTC-neutrophil clusters and demonstrated that they are associated with greatly increased metastatic ability. 

When the mouse model was seeded with circulating tumor cells (CTCs) extracted from a CTC-neutrophil cluster, metastasis occurred faster and more aggressively than when it was seeded with CTCs without neutrophils.  Metastatic progression was also faster in patients with CTC-neutrophil clusters.  The researchers analysed the time from diagnosis of primary breast cancer to subsequent diagnosis of metastatic spread of the disease and found that all (100%) patients with one or more CTC-neutrophil clusters (n=9) had progressed to secondary cancers within four years whereas only 40% of patients (n=48) without any CTC-neutrophil clusters had progressed.

The importance of the new research is that it identifies the role of the patient's own immune cells in assisting the cancer cells spread.  They found that the neutrophils enhance the metastasis-seeding ability of CTCs by releasing specific messenger substances, such as cytokines. When this release of cytokines was blocked by the researchers in the mouse model, the pro-metastatic effects of neutrophils were stopped.  This opens the potential for the development of new therapies to reduce the metastatic spread of cancer.

The research also serves as further evidence of the importance of the growing interest in research into CTC clusters.  ANGLE's Parsortix system is the only commercially available system that can support this research by harvesting CTC clusters from patient blood and mouse models for analysis, and Basel has developed protocols specially optimised for this process.

Professor Nicola Aceto, Group Leader - Cancer Metastasis Laboratory, University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, Switzerland, commented:

"Our research has shown that, surprisingly, the body's own neutrophils act by protecting CTCs in circulation, allowing CTCs to more efficiently seed metastasis. Indeed, the presence of CTC-neutrophil clusters in the bloodstream also correlates with a poor prognosis of breast cancer patients.  The next aim will be to identify drugs to nullify the role of the neutrophils in the progression of cancer."

ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:

"Research into CTC clusters using the Parsortix system has the potential to change the way that cancer is treated.  The publication of the University of Basel's research in Nature on CTC-neutrophil clusters, following the previous publication in Cell, is a tremendous achievement for Basel, one of ANGLE's leading customers. We are delighted that the harvesting of CTC clusters, using the Parsortix system, is a key element in the drive to block the process of cancer metastasis that is responsible for over 90% of deaths from cancer."

The study published in the journal Nature today can be accessed here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-0915-y and in due course should be available at

https://angleplc.com/library/publications/

For further information ANGLE:

ANGLE plc	[phone]
Andrew Newland, Chief Executive Ian Griffiths, Finance Director
finnCap Ltd (NOMAD and Joint Broker) Corporate Finance - Carl Holmes, Simon Hicks, Max Bullen-Smith ECM - Alice Lane	[phone]
WG Partners (Joint Broker) Nigel Barnes, Nigel Birks, Andrew Craig, Chris Lee	[phone]
FTI Consulting Simon Conway, Stephanie Cuthbert, Ciara Martin Matthew Ventimiglia (US)	[phone] [phone]

This announcement contains inside information.

For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on http://www.angleplc.com/the-parsortix-system/glossary/

Notes for editors

About ANGLE plc www.angleplc.com 

ANGLE is a world leading liquid biopsy company with sample to answer solutions. ANGLE's proven patent protected platforms include an epitope-independent circulating tumor cell (CTC) harvesting technology and a downstream analysis system for cost effective, highly multiplexed analysis of nucleic acids and proteins.

ANGLE's cell separation technology is called the Parsortix^TM system and it enables a liquid biopsy (simple blood test) to be used to provide the cells of interest. CTCs enable the complete picture of a cancer to be seen as they allow DNA, RNA and protein analysis and the live cells harvested can be cultured. Parsortix is the subject of 21 granted patents in Europe, the United States, Canada, India, China, Japan and Australia and three extensive families of patents are being progressed worldwide. The system is based on a microfluidic device that captures live cells based on a combination of their size and compressibility. The Parsortix system has a CE Mark in Europe for the indicated use and FDA clearance is in process for the United States with a 400 subject study in metastatic breast cancer. ANGLE is seeking to be the first ever FDA cleared CTC harvesting system and only the third ever FDA cleared liquid biopsy test. ANGLE has undertaken 400 subject clinical studies in an ovarian cancer pelvic mass triage test that achieved best in class accuracy (ROC-AUC) of 95.1% and is being optimised.

ANGLE's analysis technology for proteins and nucleic acids of all types is called the HyCEAD Ziplex^® platform and is based on a patented flow through array technology. It provides for low cost, highly multiplexed, rapid and sensitive capture of targets from a wide variety of sample types. A proprietary chemistry approach allows for the capture and amplification of over 100 biomarkers simultaneously in a single reaction. The HyCEAD Ziplex system is ideal for measuring gene expression and other markers directly from Parsortix harvests and was used in the ovarian cancer pelvic mass triage test to achieve the 95.1% accuracy.

ANGLE's proprietary technologies can be combined to provide automated, sample to answer results in both centralised laboratory and point-of-use cartridge formats.

ANGLE has established formal collaborations with world-class cancer centres and major corporates such as QIAGEN, Abbott and Philips, and works closely with leading CTC translational research customers. These Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) are working to identify applications with medical utility (clear benefit to patients), and to secure clinical data that demonstrates that utility in patient studies. The body of evidence as to the benefits of the Parsortix system is growing rapidly from our own clinical studies in metastatic breast cancer and ovarian cancer and also from KOLs with 17 peer-reviewed publications and numerous publicly available posters, available on our website.

 

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