When hematopoietic cells (myeloid cells) change malignantly in the bone marrow, this can lead to an uncontrolled proliferation of certain blood cells. Humans then suffer from diseases that are referred to by the collective term MPN (Myeloproliferative neoplasms). Every year, several thousand people come down with an MPN in Germany alone and an accurate diagnosis requires complicated and expensive methods of molecular biology. German company DIANOVA GmbH has launched the monoclonal antibody CAL2 to the market, which significantly improves the diagnosis of MPN diseases.
MPN diseases include essential thrombocythemia (ET), primary myelofibrosis (PMF), polycythemia vera (PV) and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). The monoclonal antibody CAL2 of DIANOVA GmbH allows the differentiation of CALR mutated ET and PMF of PV, and reactive changes of the bone marrow.
Here CAL2 fills an important gap in the diagnosis: until recently, only two genetic mutations (JAK2 and MPL) were known as the main causes of the MPN diseases. It was only in 2013 that scientists discovered a third set of mutations in MPN patients - they found changes in a gene that encodes the protein calreticulin.
Calreticulin mutations usually occur in ET and PMF patients who are JAK2- / MPL- negative.1 Accordingly, patients with ET or PMF, but without the JAK2 / MPN mutation, can be identified by the detection of a CALR mutation.
With CAL2, the immunohistochemical proof of all CALR mutations is now possible in paraffin-embedded bone marrow biopsies for the first time. The CAL2 immunostaining is correlated by 100% with the molecular detection by DNA sequencing.
Previously used molecular diagnostic methods often last up to one week to get a diagnosis, are expensive and do not offer possibilities to visualize the diseased cells. The immunohistochemical method with CAL2 is significantly cheaper than the molecular diagnostic method - by a factor of 10, estimates DIANOVA CEO Jürgen A. Frerichs: "The advantage of the antibody is that you have the result directly in front of you. The process is simple and fast. Moreover, the visualization offers a great advantage: Pathologists can now differ between diseased and healthy cells under the microscope."
For more information visit http://www.dianova.com.