Oasis Diagnostics Receives Grant for Parkinson’s Diagnosis Test

Vancouver, Wash.-based Oasis Diagnostics Corporation has been awarded a research grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to further develop its non-invasive, saliva-based rapid test for Parkinson’s disease detection and diagnosis. Oasis will collaborate with Charles Adler, M.D., and his group at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz. to study proprietary biomarkers in saliva that are the subject of an exclusive license held by Oasis from Danish researchers.

Research has shown that 50 salivary biomarkers are contributory to Parkinson’s disease. A diagnosis can be reached using just three biomarkers using Oasis’ Verofy platform, the company claims. In the project supported by MJFF, initial work will be carried out to confirm that Verofy is able to detect specific concentrations of each of three biomarkers that collectively provide a high degree of accuracy (sensitivity and specificity) for Parkinson’s disease detection.

According to Oasis, diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is very difficult due to dependence on clinical examination and the current lack of suitable diagnostic biomarkers. Tests that do provide some evidence of disease presence—such as measurement of cerebrospinal biomarkers and imaging techniques—are expensive and/or invasive in nature. A saliva-based diagnostic test would be a great benefit to the millions of individuals living with Parkinson’s disease, and the many more who will become at risk as the population ages. Additionally, validation of Parkinson’s biomarkers could aid clinical trials of disease-modifying treatments by allowing for study participant stratification and faster testing of a therapy’s efficacy.

Several other saliva tests are currently under development in the Verofy platform device including tests for stress (cortisol), which is the subject of a National Institute of Health Phase II SBIR award, testosterone and estradiol. Verofy is designed to provide quantitative biomarker assessment and, being a rapid test, may be applied to a multitude of diseases, disease states or biomarkers for use in any setting where immediate results are required.

Oasis provides saliva diagnostic and standardized collection tools.