[OASIS] is the recipient of a research award from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to validate OASIS’ development of a non-invasive, saliva-based, rapid test for Parkinson’s disease detection and diagnosis. OASIS will collaborate with Dr. Charles Adler’s group at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona to study proprietary biomarkers in saliva that are the subject of an exclusive license held by OASIS from Danish researchers.
Research has shown that 50 salivary biomarkers are contributory to Parkinson’s disease, but that as few as three can lead to accurate diagnosis using the OASIS’ VerOFy® platform. The VerOFy® Rapid Test Platform is an enabling technology for rapid, point-of-care diagnosis using saliva specimens. In the project supported by MJFF, initial work will be carried out to confirm that VerOFy® is able to detect specific concentrations of each of three biomarkers that collectively provide a high degree of accuracy (sensitivity and specificity) for Parkinson’s disease detection.
Diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is very difficult due to dependence on clinical examination and the current lack of suitable diagnostic biomarkers. Tests that do provide some evidence of disease presence — such as measurement of cerebrospinal biomarkers and imaging techniques — are expensive and/or invasive in nature. A saliva-based diagnostic test would be a great benefit to the millions of individuals living with Parkinson’s disease, and the many more who will become at risk as the population ages. Additionally, validation of Parkinson’s biomarkers could aid clinical trials of disease-modifying treatments by allowing for study participant stratification and faster testing of a therapy’s efficacy.
Several unique saliva tests are currently under development in the VerOFy® platform device including tests for stress [cortisol], which is the subject of an NIH Phase II SBIR award, testosterone and estradiol. VerOFy® provides quantitative biomarker assessment and may be applied to a multitude of diseases, disease states or biomarkers for use in any setting where immediate results are required.
