A Novel QPCR Technology for Direct Quantification Of Methylations in Untreated DNA

A Novel QPCR Technology for Direct Quantification Of Methylations in Untreated DNA

Abstract
Personalized treatment of cancer patients demands fast, low cost and precise diagnostics providing healthcare professionals with the information they need to maximize treatment efficiency and minimize treatment cost.
Biomarkers to guide and monitor treatment selection and efficiency includes a variety of genetic changes such as point mutations, deletions, and duplications. Several approaches for detection of these kinds of variations have been developed and are widely implemented in clinical settings. Methods of choice includes various sequencing technologies, but with the ease of use and high sensitivity qPCR and dPCR are still preferred for many applications.
Apart from the more permanent changes from somatic mutations also reversible modifications to the genome, referred to as epigenetic changes, has been identified as playing a crucial part in cancer development. As such methylation in gene promoter regions is recognized as biomarkers predicting treatment efficiency and prognosis. However, methylation status of promotor regions is not readily identified by PCR or sequencing technologies and commonly rely on chemical or enzymatic pretreatment, changing the epigenetic signature into a structural or sequence difference.
In this presentation we describe a novel technology enabling direct qPCR quantification of DNA methylation of untreated DNA.