Methyl Detect
Methyl Detect is paving the way into Methylation Sensitive High-Resolution Melting (MS-HRM) technology by focusing on offering cost effective, fast producing quantitative methylation data from their EpiMelt assay kits without having to spend on Next Generation Sequencing Technology or pyrosequencing.
The company founded in January 2017 is established by a team of cancer researchers and biotechnology entrepreneurs in Denmark, with a future focus to establish and expand their assay kits as diagnostic use in pathology laboratories across Europe and UK. Their mission is to make MS-HRM technology accessible to researchers in the field of epigenetic, cancer and other disease areas where targeting methylation can be essential for early disease prognosis and targeted therapy.
DNA methylation is a crucial epigenetic mechanism where DNA modification leads to gene expression changes and gene regulation. Aberrant methylation patterns have been linked to various chronic diseases however cancer has been the most investigated disease area crucial for designing diagnostic treatments to irradicate tumour growth or further repercussion with best treatment alternatives.
For example it has been identified that BRCA1 & BRCA2 methylation pre-screening might predict treatment response in PARPi and analysis of BRCA1/2 methylation in liquid biopsy might define patient subgroups at different time points that may benefit from PARPi
How does the methylation affect cancer cells
In cancer cells, the tumour suppressor gene becomes hypermethylated and silenced allowing Oncogenes and transposon elements to be demethylated, thereby becoming activated and leading to instability of the cancer cells.
To overcome the challenges with methylation Methyl Detect EpiMelt assay kits have been optimised and validated to answer some of the key challenges faced in pre-screening which includes
- DNA Degradation: Bisulfite treatment, commonly used in methylation analysis, can degrade DNA, especially in compromised samples like cell-free DNA (cfDNA)
- Low Sensitivity and Specificity: Detecting low levels of methylation and distinguishing between methylated and unmethylated DNA can be difficult
- Complexity of Cancer Genomes: Cancer cells often exhibit heterogeneous methylation patterns, making it challenging to identify consistent biomarkers
- Sample Quality and Quantity: Limited availability of high-quality DNA samples can hinder accurate methylation analysis in NGS or pyrosequencing.
Methyl Detect offers a range of EpiMelt Assay kits targeted at specific genes that can enhance the detection capability of heterogenous methylation as well as methylation in any degraded samples or FFPE block samples. The methylation status of a sample can be assessed with MS-HRM irrespective of the sample quality.
MS-HRM is therefore highly suitable for locus-specific methylation assessment in samples derived from FFPE tissue. Sarah Connan Institute have used extracted DNA from FFPE block to significantly determine the MLH1 Promoter Hypermethylation for pre-screening 2for Lynch Syndrome.
Methyl Detect Range of Kits | |
EpiMelt Bisulphite Modification Kit
| The kits are used to convert unmethylated cytosines to uracil, while methylated cytosines remain unchanged. This conversion is crucial for differentiating between methylated and unmethylated DNA during PCR amplification. |
EpiMelt Realtime PCR Master mix | Optimised for use with EpiMelt methylation detection assays, this master mix ensures robust and reliable amplification across various platforms. |
EpiMelt Detection Assay Kit for specific genes | These assays are designed to detect methylation in specific genes, providing high sensitivity and specificity. They are compatible with standard laboratory equipment. Each assay comes with a control system that includes a methylation positive control, a methylation negative control, and an assay calibration control. These controls ensure the reliability and accuracy of the methylation measurements. |
Benefits of the Methyl Detect Kit
- Robust and Reliable: The kit's unique primer design and specific annealing temperatures ensure robust and reliable amplification, even in degraded samples.
- It can detect specific hypermethylation in mutated genes and detect heterogenous methylation that are difficult in NGS and other machines
- Ease of Use: The kit includes ready-to-use controls and reagents, compatible with standard laboratory equipment like PCR, simplifying the workflow and reducing the potential for errors.
- Proven to offer faster read out without requiring expensive machines like NGS, pyrosequencing or MS-MLPA.
- This system is applicable to most methylation screening technologies and helps generate standard curves for techniques like q-MSP or MethyLight.
- Comprehensive Analysis: EpiMelt allows for the analysis of multiple genes, such as BRCA1, BRCA2, MLH1 and many more, providing a comprehensive view of methylation status across different cancer-related genes
Feedback can be provided within a day, which is important if you must consider the choice of cancer treatment, for instance
The EpiMelt assay kits enhances the accuracy and reliability of methylation detection of targeted genes supporting better diagnostic and therapeutic decision making for cancer treatment and other disease related genes where methylation affects the cellular regulation.