Epitope Detection in Monocytes (EDIM) is a technology that uses the innate immune system's mechanisms to detect biomarkers or antigens in immune cells. It is a non-invasive form of liquid biopsy, i.e. biopsy from blood, which analyzes activated macrophages (CD14+/CD16+) for disease-specific epitopes, such as tumor cell components.[1][2]

Macrophages are part of the human immune system. They are involved in the detection, phagocytosis and destruction of organisms which are deemed harmful.[2][3]

In case of cancerous tumors, macrophages ingest tumor cells and dissolve them with the help of enzymes, storing tumor proteins intracellularly, even when little tumor mass is present. With the help of EDIM technologie, activated macrophages containing intracellular tumor epitopes can be detected using CD14 and CD16 specific antibodies.[4][5][6]

Areas of Application

edit

Currently, EDIM technology is used for the blood test PanTum Detect. Here, the method is applied to examine which individuals would benefit from further cancer detection examinations with imaging procedures (MRI, PET/CT) to clarify a possible tumor disease. The two biomarkers used for PanTum Detect are TKTL1 and DNaseX.

The PanTum Detect blood test exploits the EDIM technology utilizing the fact that activated monocytes/macrophages phagocytose tumor cells and contain tumor proteins intracellularly.[7][8]

References

edit
  1. ^ Grimm, Martin; Schmitt, Steffen; Teriete, Peter; Biegner, Thorsten; Stenzl, Arnulf; Hennenlotter, Jörg; Muhs, Hans-Joachim; Munz, Adelheid; Nadtotschi, Tatjana; König, Klemens; Sänger, Jörg; Feyen, Oliver; Hofmann, Heiko; Reinert, Siegmar; Coy, Johannes F. (2013-12-04). "A biomarker based detection and characterization of carcinomas exploiting two fundamental biophysical mechanisms in mammalian cells". BMC Cancer. 13: 569. doi:10.1186/1471-2407-13-569. ISSN 1471-2407. PMC 4235042. PMID 24304513.
  2. ^ a b Coy, Johannes F. (2017-04-20). "EDIM-TKTL1/Apo10 Blood Test: An Innate Immune System Based Liquid Biopsy for the Early Detection, Characterization and Targeted Treatment of Cancer". International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 18 (4): 878. doi:10.3390/ijms18040878. ISSN 1422-0067. PMC 5412459. PMID 28425973.
  3. ^ "Macrophages | British Society for Immunology". www.immunology.org. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  4. ^ Saman, S.; Stagno, M. J.; Warmann, S. W.; Malek, N. P.; Plentz, R. R.; Schmid, E. (2020-01-01). "Biomarkers Apo10 and TKTL1: Epitope-detection in monocytes (EDIM) as a new diagnostic approach for cholangiocellular, pancreatic and colorectal carcinoma". Cancer Biomarkers. 27 (1): 129–137. doi:10.3233/CBM-190414. ISSN 1574-0153. PMC 7029314. PMID 31771043.
  5. ^ Urla, Cristian; Stagno, Matias Julian; Schmidt, Andreas; Handgretinger, Rupert; Fuchs, Jörg; Warmann, Steven W.; Schmid, Evi (2022-07-28). "Epitope Detection in Monocytes (EDIM) As a New Method of Liquid Biopsy in Pediatric Rhabdomyosarcoma". Biomedicines. 10 (8): 1812. doi:10.3390/biomedicines10081812. ISSN 2227-9059. PMC 9404738. PMID 36009359.
  6. ^ Jansen, Natalie; Coy, Johannes F (2013-04-01). "Diagnostic use of epitope detection in monocytes blood test for early detection of colon cancer metastasis". Future Oncology. 9 (4): 605–609. doi:10.2217/fon.13.8. ISSN 1479-6694. PMID 23560382.
  7. ^ Simon Burg, Audrey Laure Céline Grust, Oliver Feyen, Katja Failing, Gamal-André Banat, Johannes F Coy, Martin Grimm, Martin Gosau, Ralf Smeets. "Blood-Test Based Targeted Visualization Enables Early Detection of Premalignant and Malignant Tumors in Asymptomatic Individuals" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-03-26. Retrieved 2022-12-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ Burg, Simon; Smeets, Ralf; Gosau, Martin; Failing, Katja; Grust, Audrey Laure Céline (2023). "Case Report: Early detection of lung carcinoid in an asymptomatic individual by blood-test initiated PET-CT imaging". Frontiers in Oncology. 13. doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1177237. ISSN 2234-943X. PMC 10280377. PMID 37346076.