ATLANTA, Jan. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Genomics Group (G3), a leading precision-medicine based biopharmaceutical company, today announced that a patent for its first precision diagnostic biomarker for the detection of plaque buildup in the heart has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark office (the "USPTO"). Plaque buildup in the heart leads to heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest, which were responsible for approximately 720,000 cardiac events in 2018 in the United States. G3 developed a breakthrough, novel diagnostic test known as "knowPLAQUE™" based on mass-spectrometry, by measuring the circulating levels of 8 different small molecules that represent the underlying mechanisms of the development of plaque buildup, chest pain, heart attacks and sudden cardiac death. Plaque buildup is the result of derangements in several biological pathways beyond just the deposition of "bad cholesterol" in the arterial wall, such as changes in carbohydrate and energy metabolism, insulin resistance, inflammation, tissue damage by glycosylation and the failure of the body's anti-oxidant system to combat plaque buildup. G3's visionary "knowPLAQUE™" test is the first diagnostic blood test that captures and detects these relevant underlying mechanisms leading to plaque buildup. The test was developed and validated in a multi-center study in over a 1,000 patients and has an excellent diagnostic accuracy.
Szilard Voros, MD, FACC, FSCCT and FAHA, Founder and CEO of G3 and cardiologist by background, commented that "This is a very significant scientific and clinical breakthrough. For many years we have only been focusing on the role of lipids (fats) in the blood, and this is the first time that we make the diagnosis of plaque buildup by identifying the specific underlying biological abnormalities. We were able to do this based on G3's transformational platform that includes detailed measurements of plaque in the heart, coupled with the measurement of millions of molecules in the body and using sophisticated Big-Data-based approaches to identify completely novel pathways and novel diagnostic biomarkers in a hypothesis-free, unbiased manner. This approach is critical for the discovery of entirely novel, previously unknown and unsuspected biological pathways, biomarkers and even drug targets".
When asked about the novel tests such as "G3's "knowPLAQUE™", Jagat Narula MD, PhD, MACC, Philip J. and Harriet L. Professor in Medicine and Chief of Cardiology at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital, said that it has a potential in the screening setting and should contribute to improve clinical care of patients with coronary artery disease. This blood test may be able to be utilized as a "gatekeeper" to identify those patients in whom chest pain is not due to coronary artery disease, and could direct imaging resources to those patients who are likely to have cardiovascular disease. This would help better utilization of resources and substantially reduce healthcare costs. However, the exact clinical positioning of G3's "knowPLAQUE™" test will have to be evaluated in specifically designed future clinical trials.
About Global Genomics Group (G3)
G3 is a global leader in pan-omics and investigates biological networks that lead to the development of disease to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutics. G3 combines precision phenotyping with pan-omics (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics and lipoprotein proteomics) and systems-biology driven bioinformatics to investigate the development and progression of conditions such as atherosclerosis in cardiovascular disease.
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