Satoris Discovery Process

The processes of neuroinflammation and neurodegradation occurring in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease are associated with cells and cell-signaling proteins capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. Satoris scientists postulated that a particular disease state would produce a characteristic pattern of such cell-signaling proteins.

This was confirmed by studying the expression levels of more than 220 signaling proteins in 259 samples from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients, patients with other dementias (OD) and normal controls. As summarized in a study published in the November 2007 edition of Nature Medicine, at least 45 markers showed distinct differences between the groups. Additionally, a subset of 18 markers was identified that discriminated between AD and normal and/or other dementias, with 90 percent accuracy (Figure 1) up to two years earlier than conventional diagnostic procedures (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Identifying Alzheimer's Disease and discriminating Alzheimer's disease from other dementias.

Figure 2: Early identification of Alzheimer's disease in at-risk MCI patients.

Satoris is working to translate these findings into protein panels, applied to a range of analytical platforms. Utility of these findings can be applied in Alzheimer’s research and drug development, in Alzheimer’s clinical trial stratification and monitoring, and ultimately, in the diagnosis and management of Alzheimer’s patients.

This novel approach of discovering and studying signaling protein signatures is also expected to have application in other neurological diseases.

Figure 3:  The Satoris biomarker discovery process (Nature Medicine, November 2007).

Satoris’ Neuro61 and Neuro77 Biomarker Panels were developed using the Satoris discovery process illustrated above.   Additional information about these tests can be found in our Products section.