The Reno Dispatch

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Tuesday, October 12, 2021 Exclusive: Will the Microbiome Save us All?

Innovative San Diegobiotech company is showing that microbes, which can now be identified in ablood test, can detect cancer at very early stages

Micronoma co-founders: Greg Poore, chief analytics officer, Sandrine Miller-Montgomery, CEO, and Rob Knight, scientific advisory board

One of the newest and mostpromising developments in cancer research is the use of state-of-the-art bloodtests to detect cancer.

It may soundcounter-intuitive, but blood tests have never been especially helpful indetecting cancer. Ironically, not even blood cancers.

I speak from experience.As a three-time survivor of stage IV non-Hodgkins lymphoma, my initial bloodtests were virtually normal. More invasive tests, including surgical biopsies,revealed widespread cancer.

But that scenario isbeginning to change.

Companies such asStageZero Life Sciences, Cleveland Diagnostics, Exact Sciences, GRAIL andothers are showing in multiple trials and in the clinic that cancer can bedetected in its early stages via biomarkers found in the blood.

This is potentiallygame-changing for patients, for multiple reasons. It will likely mean earlierand far less invasive detection, as well as far less invasive treatment. Orperhaps no treatment at all besides potentially a localized surgery.

This could have an especially profound impact on adolescents and young adults who are most often diagnosed with later stages of cancer than any other age group.

Among the most interestingand promising of these companies is Micronoma. Originating at the University of California San Diego, Micronoma istheonly company that is leveraging the bodys microbiome to detectearly-stage cancer.

Most companies in theso-called liquid biopsy space seek a molecular signature coming from within thecancer or some fragment of its DNA in the blood.

But Micronoma is focusedon the microbiome, the vast collection of microbes -- bacteria, fungi,protozoa, and viruses mostly beneficial, that live inside your body andmine.

While initially known tobe found primarily in our gut and on our skin, these microbes can also be foundin our mouths, tissues, stools and, yes, the blood -- even when were healthy.And in each of these locations, even within one individual the composition ofthese communities will differ.

Sandrine Miller-Montgomery,Micronomas CEO, told The Reno Dispatch that microbes in the blood can be used todetect cancer thanks to microbial biomarkers, which arecharacteristics ofthe tumor that you can utilize toidentify the progress of a condition ordisease.

When analyzed properly,she said, thesemicrobial biomarkerscan reveal cancer, even at stage I of thedisease.

Im not a scientist, butthis feels to me like a no-brainer. Why wouldn't there be clues about cancer in the microbiome? Afterall, the gut has been called the center of the human bodys immune system.

Two yearsago,Newsweekreported thatthe gut contains60 to 70 percentofthebody'simmunecells.

Theres been agrowinginterest in the link between circulating microbiome signatures andearly cancer detection since Micronomas publication last year inNature.

Our team came together ata time when computer science, microbiome knowledge and sequencing were allreaching a peak, while costs were going down, said Miller-Montgomery.

There was a clearclinical need and we had a validated hypothesis, so the time was right for usto harness the tumor-associated circulating microbiome to make a difference inthe lives of many.

Margaret McFall-Ngai,director of the pacific biosciences research center at the University of Hawaiiat Manda, noted at the 1st Microbiome Center Consortium in June 2019 that microbeswere on the planet millions of years before us.

The same way thatknowledge of the universe moved from geocentric to heliocentric, it may be timefor the scientific community to realize that microbiome is not something thatshould be put on the back burner to better understand our health and diseases, shesaid.

Micronoma recentlyannounceda collaboration withUniversity of New SouthWales,Sydney(UNSW) on a$4 milliongrant from theAustralian Government to fund research into hepatocellular carcinoma, the mostcommon type of primary liver cancer.

The collaboration, led byassociate professorAmany Zekryand professorEmadEl-Omarfrom UNSW medicine health, will enable the development ofmicrobial-based biomarkers powered by artificial intelligence for earlydetection of liver cancer.

Micronoma's chiefscientific officer,Eddie Adams, joins the UNSW project as a co-principalinvestigator on the grant.

This research will usemachine learning to examine thousands of microbiome plasma features todiscover, validate, and translate microbial-derived biomarkers for theearly detection of HCC.

Micronoma is currentlythe only cancer diagnostic company in the world that uses microbial DNAsignatures in the blood (mb-DNA) to detect early-stage cancer," Zekry saidin a press statement.

"Their minimallyinvasive microbiome-driven liquid biopsy approach is focused on detectingearly-stage lung cancer and will provide valuable expertise in establishing anHCC-related microbiome platform.

The diagnosticimplications of microbiome markers in liquid and tissue biopsies are extensive.

It has the greatpotential to prevent unnecessary suffering caused by later-stage cancerdiagnosis, as well as potentially enabling personalized and less invasivetreatments at the earliest stages of cancer, said Miller-Montgomery.

Cancer is a disease that isaffecting all of us either directly or indirectly through a family member. Theteam is working relentlessly to ensure that we can help reduce the burden ofthis disease on all of our loved ones.

Posted byJamie Renoat7:16 PMNo comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Wednesday, September 22, 2021 EXCLUSIVE: Trial Results Show Moderna Vaccine Continued to Be Safe and Efficacious More Than Five Months After Second Dose

Good news regarding Covid-19 has been rather scarce of late. But results from a Phase 3 clinical trial published today in the New England Journal of Medicine show that more than five months post-second injection, the Moderna (mRNA-1273) vaccines efficacy did not wane. These findings dramatically demonstrate the high level of protection COVID-19 vaccines are continuing to give us.

On a personal note, as a cancer patient, two-time Moderna vaccine recipient and advocate for Covid-19 patients and cancer patients, I am pleased to learn the results of this study.

Overall, our results continue to demonstrate that vaccines work and work extremely well at preventing COVID-19, Dr. Lindsay Baden, the trial's co-corresponding author, said in a press statement.

Baden, who works in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Womens Hospital, said that researchers are continuing to explore questions about duration of immunity following vaccination and the impact of variants. Snd the news is largely good. Even as we examine the possibility of waning immunity, Baden said, "We see evidence that the vaccine is still very protective."

The peer-reviewedNEJMpaper details the findings. Starting 14 days after the second dose of the Moderna vaccine, the vaccine efficacy was 93.2 percent for the prevention of COVID-19 compared to placebo. Prevention of COVID-19 remained consistent across the follow-up period, with greater than 90 percent vaccine efficacy against disease observed four or more months after the second injection.

"Safety data were assessed continuously throughout the trial, including severe adverse events. The team solicited data on local and systemic adverse events seven days after each injection and collected data on unsolicited adverse events 28 days after each injection," the study noted.

The frequency of other adverse events including severe adverse events were generally similar between the vaccine and placebo group, regardless of age. Vaccine efficacy was consistently high in subgroups, including participants who were 65 and older, 75 and older, those with comorbidities, different racial and ethnic groups, and different categories of occupational risk exposures.

In secondary analyses, researchers also found substantial protection against asymptomatic infection.

Overall, our results continue to demonstrate that vaccines work and work extremely well at preventing COVID-19, said Baden. We are continuing to explore questions about duration of immunity following vaccination and the impact of variants. But even as we examine the possibility of waning immunity, we see evidence that the vaccine is still very protective.

The trial enrolled 30,415 participants; 15,209 were assigned to receive the mRNA- 1273 vaccine, and 15,206 to receive placebo. Vaccine efficacy in preventing Covid-19 illness was 93.2%. The efficacy in preventing severe disease was 98.2%.

And vaccine efficacy was consistent across ethnic and racial groups, age groups, and participants with coexisting conditions. No safety concerns were identified.

Posted byJamie Renoat2:19 PM1 comment: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Older PostsHomeSubscribe to:Posts (Atom)Jamie Reno
Welcome to our award-winning global news site

Jamie Reno, an award-winning correspondent for Newsweek for 23 years, is now a staff investigative reporter for Healthline, America's #1 consumer health news site with 80 million monthly visitors, passing WebMD. Jamie has also written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Yahoo Finance, People, Mens Journal, ESPN, International Business Times, The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated, MSNBC, Entertainment Weekly and USA Today. Reno, whos won more than 160 writing and journalism awards, was the lead reporter on a Newsweek series on the 9/11 terrorist attacks that earned him and his colleagues the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Reno is also a popular author (Hope Begins in the Dark, Snowman on the Pitcher's Mound), award-winning singer-songwriter-guitarist (jamiereno.com), and global advocate for cancer patients, Covid patients, health care workers, war veterans and children. He is a 23-year, three-time stage 4 cancer survivor. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Gabriela, and their daughter, Mandy.

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