MD Anderson Develops New Technique For Assessing Cancer UsingParsortix

Study published in leading peer-reviewed publication Nature

GUILDFORD, SURREY / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2019 / ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL) (OTCQX: ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company, is pleased to announce that top US cancer centre, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has developed a new technique for assessing the metastatic potential of breast cancer using ANGLE's Parsortix^TM system.

The technique Transmembrane Receptor Dynamics (TReD) measures the dynamics of cytoskeletal structure and mechanical properties of live cancer cells held within the microfluidic Parsortix cassette using an optical interrogation technique. The development work has been published in the peer-reviewed publication, Nature.

The publication states that the TReD approach can serve 'as a new biophysical marker to probe the metastatic potential of cancer cells and even to monitor the transition of metastasis.' This offers the potential to differentiate highly invasive cancer cells from non to less-invasive cancer cells allowing more personalised treatment to be offered to the patient.

The technique is a significant advance on current approaches because 'it can deal with suspended cells and does not require mechanical contact or applied force with cells under examination.' Current approaches have a variety of key limitations including being technically challenging and/or labour intensive, requiring physical interaction with the cell and cannot be undertaken on live cells. The researchers state that TReD can be easily performed within the Parsortix system.

The work published in the journal Nature is available at

https://angleplc.com/library/publications/.

ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:

'This study is the 19^th peer-reviewed publication by a leading independent cancer centre demonstrating successful use of ANGLE's world leading Parsortix CTC system. We are pleased to see new applications of the system being developed by independent users of Parsortix, all of which add to the body of evidence and generate new commercial opportunities.'

For further information ANGLE:

For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on http://www.angleplc.com/the-parsortix-system/glossary/

Notes for editors

About ANGLE plc www.angleplc.com

ANGLE is a world leading liquid biopsy company with sample-to-answer solutions. ANGLE's proven patent protected platforms include an epitope-independent circulating tumor cell (CTC) harvesting technology and a downstream analysis system for cost effective, highly multiplexed analysis of nucleic acids and proteins.

ANGLE's cell separation technology is called the Parsortix^TM system, and it enables a liquid biopsy (a simple blood test) to be used to provide the cells of interest to the user in a format suitable for multiple downstream subsequent analyses. CTCs enable the complete picture of a cancer to be seen as they allow DNA, RNA and protein analysis and the live cells harvested can be cultured. The Parsortix technology is the subject of 21 granted patents in Europe, the United States, Canada, India, China, Japan and Australia with three extensive families of patents are being progressed worldwide. The system is based on a microfluidic device that captures cells based on a combination of their size and compressibility. The Parsortix system has a CE Mark in Europe for the indicated use and FDA clearance is in process for the United States with a 400 subject study in metastatic breast cancer. ANGLE is seeking to be the first ever FDA cleared CTC harvesting system and only the third ever FDA cleared liquid biopsy test. ANGLE has already undertaken two separate 200 subject clinical studies under a program designed to develop an ovarian cancer pelvic mass triage test, with the results showing best in class accuracy (ROC-AUC) of 95.1%. The pelvic mass triage assay has undergone further refinement and optimisation, and is currently in the process of a clinical verification study.

ANGLE's technology for the multiplex evaluation of proteins and nucleic acids of all types is called the HyCEAD^TM Ziplex^® platform and is based on a patented flow through array technology. It provides for low cost, highly multiplexed, rapid and sensitive capture of targets from a wide variety of sample types. A proprietary chemistry approach (the HyCEAD method) allows for the capture and amplification of over 100 biomarkers simultaneously in a single reaction. The HyCEAD Ziplex system is ideal for measuring gene expression and other markers directly from Parsortix harvests and was used in the ovarian cancer pelvic mass triage test to achieve best in class accuracy (ROC-AUC) of 95.1%.

ANGLE's proprietary technologies can be combined to provide automated, sample-to-answer results in both centralised laboratory and point-of-use cartridge formats.

ANGLE has established formal collaborations with world-class cancer centres and major corporates such as QIAGEN, Abbott and Philips, and works closely with leading CTC translational research customers. These Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) are working to identify applications with medical utility (clear benefit to patients), and to secure clinical data that demonstrates that utility in patient studies. The body of evidence as to the benefits of the Parsortix system is growing rapidly from our own clinical studies in metastatic breast cancer and ovarian cancer and also from KOLs with 19 peer-reviewed publications and numerous publicly available posters, available on our website.

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SOURCE: ANGLE plc