Nephropathy is a hot research topic, especially in relation to its link with Diabetes (already 6 500 publications so far referenced in pubmed to date for 2019, a third of them in relation to type I or type II diabetes). As nephropathy can lead to life endangering end-stage renal diseases (ESRDs) with a severe impact on life expectancy, a lot of research is being undertaken to find new drugs to beat this potentially severe condition. Several biomarkers of this pathology have already been identified such as CD27 antigen, kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1) and α1-microglobulin in relation to type I diabetes (1), in addition to the well known Clusterin, Cystatin-C, Microalbumin and Beta-2 Microglobulin.

When it comes to proteomics and broad protein profiling (and/or quantification), two main technologies come to mind: Mass Spectrometry and Antibody Arrays. Rather than opposing each other, they appear more as complementary in the chase for Biomarker discovery.

Indeed, each technique has its own advantages and limitations. Combining the two can contribute to more accurate identification of relevant biomarkers. Going one step further, biomarker identification performed by Mass Spec can be confirmed by Antibody Arrays.

I had introduced in a previous post a newly released
Allopregnanolone Immunoassay Kit (K061-H). It has actually been used in a recent study by Gao and Matsumot, published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (S0378-8741(18)34424-6) The authors reported significant reduction in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)-like behaviors in mice treated with Kami-shoyo-san (KSS), a traditional Japanese herbal medicine. Read more in this post to see how it was used (with special thanks to Arbor Assay scientists).

Recent articles have highlighted the role the STING cell signalling pathway may be playing in drug development, whether via its inhibition to control innate immunity and inflammation (Nature Biotechnology, March 2019 :  “Drug developers switch gears to inhibit STING”), through activation of STING to boost checkpoint inhibitors in their fight against cancer (C&EN 2018  “STING fever is sweeping through the cancer immunotherapy world”), or using STING ligand cGAMP as a vaccine adjuvant for anti-tumour or anti-viral vaccines. More specifically, Aduro has demonstrated how their compound ADU-S100 activates the STING pathway to increase immune reponse against cancer cells. This interesting interview on their clinical trials program (AACR 2016) relates its potential synergy with immune checkpoint inhibitors and potent effect in systemic tumour regression.

How does the STING pathway work? And which tools can be of help to study its potential activation or inhibition is what this post aims to illustrate.