Compugen discovers biomarkers for early detection of kidney toxicity

The biomarkers were discovered through the use of Compugen’s Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) discovery platform. A key component of the discovery effort was the integration of proprietary expression and clinical data derived from biological samples provided by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Using various expression profile datasets, as well as statistical and machine-learning tools, a classifier consisting of a novel combination of four biomarkers was identified with a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of more than 85%.

Following the discovery of this four-biomarker combination, it was experimentally tested in a blind evaluation study, with rats treated with vehicle-control, negative control compound or drugs that had previously failed in preclinical trials due to nephrotoxic effects.

In this study, the four-biomarker combination accurately identified the nephrotoxic drugs after a short period of exposure to the drugs, identifying the toxic effects within five days of exposure compared with up to 28 days required for visible pathological damage, the traditional diagnostic method. In addition, the biomarker combination successfully predicted the relative levels of toxicity of the compounds that were tested.

Compugen currently plans to commercially introduce the markers through licensing arrangements during the first half of 2009.