Patent ID: 9206464
Filing Date: 2015-12-08
Classification: C12Q,G01N

Abstract:
1. A method of diagnosis or of quantitation of fibrosis comprising obtaining a patient biofluid sample, conducting an immunoassay to measure fragments of collagen type VI having an N- or C-terminal neo epitope formed by cleavage of collagen type VI by MMP2, MMP9, MMP13, FAP-1 or FAP-2, said fragments being naturally present in said sample, and associating an elevation of said measure in said patient above a normal level with the presence or extent of fibrosis, wherein said immunoassay is conducted by a method comprising: contacting the fragments of collagen type VI having said N- or C-terminal neo epitope that are naturally present in said sample with an immunological binding partner specifically reactive with the N- or C-terminal neo-epitope but not reactive with intact collagen type VI, and measuring the extent of binding of the N- or C-terminal neo-epitope to said immunological binding partner to measure therein fragments comprising said neo-epitope, wherein said immunological binding partner is raised against a synthetic peptide corresponding to an N-terminal neo epitope amino acid sequence formed by cleavage of collagen type VI by MMP2, MMP9, MMP13, FAP-1 or FAP-2 and specifically binds a neo-epitope constituted by said N-terminal amino acid sequence, said N-terminal amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of: or said immunological binding partner is raised against a synthetic peptide corresponding to a C-terminal neo epitope amino acid sequence formed by cleavage of collagen type VI by MMP2, MMP9, MMP13, FAP-1 or FAP-2 and specifically binds a neo-epitope constituted by said C-terminal amino acid sequence, said C-terminal amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of: