It is very difficult to detect AMPs in peripheral blood because normal proteins are present at million-fold relative concentrations. Therefore, Amorfix has developed a method, the EP procedure, to minimize this background noise and detect AMPs using ultra-sensitive immunodetection procedures and standard reagents. EP, the company’s core technology, uses chemical modifying agents that alter epitopes—discrete sites on proteins that react with antibodies—on normal proteins but not on AMPs. Once the AMPs are broken down, the conserved epitopes can then be readily detected. Amorfix has verified that EP technologies selectively modify normal protein but not AMPs in samples from both TSEs and AD.
Amorfix has developed a rapid-screening blood test for vCJD, based on its EP technology, that can determine from among 10 000 blood samples how many are infected with vCJD and how many are incubating the disease. In January 2009, the company announced the testing of 10,000 blood samples from the EFS-Alsace Blood Transfusion Centre in Strasbourg, France with a specificity of 99.94%. The company is currently developing a diagnostic test for Alzheimer's Disease, EP-AD™, based on the same technology.
In 2007, Amorfix announced the discovery of a misfolded superoxide-dismutase (SOD1) protein in the brains of AD patients, a protein also linked to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) for which they are in the process of developing an antibody program and vaccine program.
In January 2009, Amorfix was awarded 'Life Science Company of the Year' by the Biotechnology Initiative, for moving innovative diagnostic and therapeutic products for brain-wasting diseases into commercialization.
