AGED Diagnostics Liver Disease Assessment

Continue development of previously established methods to further validate candidate biomarkers that can discriminate steatosis from NASH and separately stage fibrosis from blood. The first assessment is to conduct test method verification to expand sample size to several hundred samples through whole genome sequencing methods. The second assessment is focused on biomarker validation by comparing targeted sequencing from patient plasma. Several sub- assessments will be conducted to support overall biomarker development efforts.

Aim 1: Test Method Verification, Whole genome bisulfite sequencing assessment for liver tissue and plasma Conduct whole genome bisulfite sequencing in patient liver tissue and patient plasma to identified candidate biomarkers that can discriminate between steatosis and NASH, and separately conduct a comparative analysis of patient liver tissue and patient plasma samples to assess NASH encompassing NASH with mild fibrosis, NASH with significant fibrosis and NASH with advanced fibrosis. The purpose of each is to identify a set of markers that have biological relevance on the liver and then identify epigenetic biomarkers in plasma derived from liver tissue. Note: both a subset of NASH specific biomarkers and fibrosis specific biomarkers have been previously reported for technical feasibility. Aim 2: Biomarker Validation, Targeted Epigenetic Sequencing Assessment Select top NASH specific biomarkers and top fibrosis specific biomarkers and design, develop and test probes to assess overall performance of each candidate biomarker in plasma. Conduct comparative analysis between various targeted sequencing and PCR based modalities. Candidate biomarker performance will be evaluated based on sensitivity, specificity, AUROC and reproducibility, among several other assessments.