A Medical Device Daily

Systems biology company Icoria (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) reported signing a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC; Edgewood, Maryland) to identify metabolomic biomarkers associated with exposure to chemical warfare agents. The agreement runs through October 2005.

The research goal is to identify molecular mechanisms of action and potential targets for the development of new prophylactic and therapeutic treatments for low-level chemical warfare agent exposure and which could lead to development of rapid, cost-effective field tests to assess exposure in soldiers and civilians.

“This is a logical application of our research work aimed at understanding the low-level effects of nerve agent exposure,“ said Joseph Zarzycki, director of ECBC. “Identifying the mechanism of action of nerve agents may provide useful information to help us in our mission to protect soldiers, civilians and first responders.“

Icoria will use gene expression and metabolic profiling through mass spectrometry with its data analysis and pathway informatics tools to study the blood and selected organs of rats exposed to low levels of VX gas to identify biomarkers. Contingent on future funding, Icoria and ECBC may conduct additional studies and work to develop a prototype blood-based field assay.

The company said it has demonstrated the strength of its metabolomics and systems biology approach in toxicology studies in work on brevetoxin in conjunction with the University of North Carolina (Wilmington). An abstract on that research, entitled “Use of Metabolomics to Identify Biomarkers for Brevetoxin Exposure“ by A. Bourdelais et al, will be presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology in March.