Collaboration to non-invasively assess pregnancy outcomes

Serving science company Thermo Fisher Scientific has entered into a collaboration with NX Prenatal, a leader in the detection, monitoring and management of pregnancy-related complications using exosome-based methods, to develop clinical mass spectrometry-based proteomics assays to monitor foetal health in utero and assess the risk of adverse outcomes, including preterm birth and preeclampsia.

The collaboration recognises the challenges faced by medical professionals who have few tools available for non-invasive risk stratification for adverse pregnancy outcomes. By combining NX Prenatal’s NeXosome platform with Thermo Fisher’s liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) instrumentation, the workflows can address the reliability, accuracy and precision of the analytical solutions currently available to clinical scientists.

NeXosome technology is used to enrich maternal blood samples for microparticles, such as exosomes, which play key roles in maintaining certain balances between the mother and foetus during pregnancy. Aberrations in these balances have been shown to correlate with the likelihood of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Merging the NeXosome platform with Thermo Fisher LC-MS technology has the potential to generate fast, efficient data for the analysis of exosome-derived proteomic biomarkers, which may lead to increased information about maternal and foetal health during pregnancy. Ultimately, the analysis has the potential to support obstetrical care decisions in conjunction with traditional clinical assessments.

“At NX Prenatal, we are developing novel assays and non-invasive early warning systems to detect subtle molecular changes in the maternal–foetal environment, all with the goal of improving the rate of healthy pregnancy outcomes,” said Brian D Brohman, CEO of NX Prenatal. “Our collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific brings together our novel NeXosome platform with their leading analytical technology with the goal of optimising clinical mass spectrometry-based workflows, in an effort to provide the precision necessary for personalised diagnostic solutions to improve health outcomes for both mother and child.”

“Our collaboration with NX Prenatal is aiming to enable us to better evaluate maternal and foetal biomarkers during pregnancy that correlate with adverse outcomes, such as preterm birth,” said Brad Hart, Senior Director, Clinical Research, Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, Thermo Fisher Scientific. “The co-development of a commercially available clinical mass spectrometry-based proteomics assay has the potential to provide a diagnostic solution to both clinical scientists and medical professionals offering more confidence in the evaluation of novel biomarkers that can support a safe delivery and healthy future for mother and baby.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Halfpoint

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