SBIR-STTR Award

Development Of A Saliva Homocysteine Assay System
Award last edited on: 7/2/08

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
NIH : NHLBI
Total Award Amount
$85,320
Award Phase
1
Solicitation Topic Code
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Principal Investigator
Timothy Carlson

Company Information

Pacific Biomarkers Inc (AKA: PBI ~ Pacific Biometrics Inc)

645 Elliott Avenue West Suite 300t
Seattle, WA 98119
   (206) 298-0068
   contact@pacbio.com
   www.pacbio.com
Location: Multiple
Congr. District: 07
County: King

Phase I

Contract Number: 1R43HL063562-01
Start Date: 00/00/00    Completed: 00/00/00
Phase I year
1999
Phase I Amount
$85,320
Investigation of saliva collection and a sensitive HPLC assay for assessment homocysteine status is proposed. The current technology for assessing homocysteine status, measurement of plasma homocysteine concentration, is confounded by preanalytical contamination of plasma with homocysteine released from red blood cells before sample processing. The elaborate specimen handling necessary to prevent this is frequently not achievable in actual practice. However, it may be avoided by measurement of homocysteine in saliva by a sensitive HPLC-procedure. The additional advantages of salivary analyte tests are that they are non- invasive, convenient and avoid costly phlebotomy. Preliminary results from this laboratory indicate that homocysteine rapidly disappears from fresh whole saliva, perhaps because of the well-documented presence of thiol degrading bacteria in saliva. This problem can be overcome by using inhibitors of salivary homocysteine degradation that we have discovered. We intend to exploit our preliminary findings by elaborating a saliva collection system that employs inhibitors of homocysteine breakdown, and saliva collection in a specially designed SalivaSac(R) device (a patented device used to collect a salivary ultrafiltrate) that is impermeable to bacteria, and other particulates, but not to proteins. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: The need for screening homocysteine status is potentially enormous. A serious obstacle to assessment of homocysteine status has been the confounding of results by preanalytical contamination of the plasma with red blood cell-derived homocysteine. The elaborate specimen handling necessary is frequently not achievable in actual practice. Salivary homocysteine measurement will avoid this problem. In addition, measurement of salivary analytes is non-invasive, convenient and avoids costly phlebotomy.

Phase II

Contract Number: ----------
Start Date: 00/00/00    Completed: 00/00/00
Phase II year
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Phase II Amount
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