MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico and BALTIMORE, Nov. 28, 2017 - Newly published research in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Proteomics* describes a collection of autoantibody biomarkers for early detection of lung cancer. The biomarkers were discovered using the HuProt™ human proteome microarray (CDI Laboratories), the largest collection of full-length human proteins in the world.

Lung cancer (along with tracheal and bronchial cancer) is the leading cause of cancer-related death world-wide with over 1.6 million succumbing annually (WHO; 2015). The development of diagnostic assays capable of detecting lung cancer in its earliest stages will be crucial for successful treatment of this disease. This paper adds to a growing list of diagnostic/prognostic assays that use peripheral autoantibodies present in patients' serum as analytes. The study was led by Heng Zhu, Ph.D., professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences and Jiang Qian, PhD., professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, both at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Professor Yi Huang at the Provincial Clinical College, Fujian Medical University, China. It is one of the largest and most diverse studies of its kind with 1,101 serum samples across nine disease groups and healthy controls.

Furthermore – with the use of HuProt™ human proteome microarrays – the study contains data from the most comprehensive proteome-wide surveys of its kind and probes for antibody biomarker candidates against over 20,000 human proteins. The set of biomarkers described demonstrated a 50% sensitivity and >90% specificity. The authors further indicate, "the use of autoantibody-based biomarkers provide a unique advantage over other protein-based methods demonstrating less variance. Once proteins translocate to the periphery, they often exhibit large quantitative and qualitative fluctuations between patients, making them less reliable as diagnostic analytes. In addition, autoantibodies are much more stable than secreted proteins in blood and are often amplified by the immune system. Further, autoantibodies of the IgG/A/E isotypes can have long-lasting memories in a patient, rendering them ideal biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis."

"This is another fine example of the power of autoantibodies as biomarkers," said Scott Paschke, CDI Vice President. "Global peripheral antibody profiling is proving to be a significant tool for the diagnosis and prognosis of some of the most devastating and prevalent diseases that affect us today. HuProt™ contains 81% of the human proteome, and today the platform is being utilized more than ever. It's certainly one of the more powerful tools for the discovery of autoantibody biomarkers, development of screening tests, and monitoring treatment efficacy available today."

*Jianbo Pan, Guang Song, Dunyan Chen, Yadong Li, Shuang Liu, Shaohui Hu, Christian Rosa, Daniel J. Eichinger, Ignacio Pino, Heng Zhu, Jiang Qian, and Yi Huang (October, 2017) Identification of serological biomarkers for early diagnosis of lung cancer using a protein array-based approach. Mol Cell Proteomics mcp.RA117.000212. First Published on October 11, 2017, doi:10.1074/mcp.RA117.000212.

About CDI - A privately-owned biotechnology corporation, CDI focuses on protein- and antibody microarray design, production and custom assay services. CDI's flagship - HuProt™ - is the most comprehensive human proteome microarray in the industry, allowing thousands of protein interactions to be done in parallel. HuProt enables R&D of future therapeutic and diagnostic tools to proceed more rapidly and cost-effectively. The microarrays are available for purchase by labs with in-house microarray scanning capability. Alternatively, CDI's Discovery Services division offers contract assay design, research, bioinformatics and custom-configured microarray production on a per-project basis. CDI's Fast-MAb® hybridoma development service addresses the urgent need for monoclonal antibodies with unprecedented specificity for research, diagnostic or therapeutic targets. Fast-MAb antibodies are evaluated for specificity on the HuProt array. The Company exports products world-wide and is expanding its clientele base and its academic and industrial collaborations.

For more information, visit cdi-lab.com.

Media Contact:

Scott Paschke, Vice President

CDI Laboratories Inc

518-534-2881 (direct)

scott.paschke@cdi-lab.com