3 April 2018 - - San Francisco, California-based personalized medicine company DotLab has released results from a new study showing that its endometriosis test, which aids in diagnosing the disease, has the potential to also be used to monitor disease progression and response to therapy, the company said.
Previous studies comparing the results of the test to laparoscopic surgery, the gold standard for diagnosis, demonstrated the test's high accuracy in detecting endometriosis.
The study was published in Reproductive Sciences.
In the study, endometriosis was induced in non-human primates. Half of the animals were administered simvastatin, an alternative approach for treating endometriosis, for 90 days.
Endometriosis was evaluated after three months in both the treated and untreated groups via laparoscopy.
The levels of specific microRNA biomarkers used in the DotLab endometriosis test were analyzed prior to laparoscopy. The extent of disease was significantly lower after three months in the treated group compared to the untreated group. Total disease volume decreased by approximately 65%.
The microRNAs analyzed reverted to normal levels in the treated group compared to the untreated group, with either a 90-93% decrease or 7.5-fold increase, consistent with the expression patterns previously seen in humans.
DotLab was founded in 2016 by Heather Bowerman and Dr. Hugh Taylor.
The company's first product, DotEndo, is a non-invasive saliva test for endometriosis, a chronic condition that affects one in ten women worldwide.