BOSTON — Mursla Bio, a precision medicine and diagnostics company with operations in Boston and Cambridge, England, has announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study validating its tissue-specific extracellular vesicle platform for blood-based disease detection.
The study, published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, demonstrated the ability of the company’s NEXPLOR technology to isolate extracellular vesicles originating from liver cells, potentially enabling more detailed analysis of liver diseases through blood samples.
Extracellular vesicles are microscopic particles released by cells into the bloodstream that carry proteins, RNA and other molecular information. By identifying vesicles originating from specific tissues, researchers may be able to detect disease-related changes without invasive tissue biopsies.
Mursla Bio’s technology focuses on tissue-specific extracellular vesicles, beginning with those released by hepatocytes, the primary functional cells of the liver.
Researchers analyzed plasma samples of less than 2 milliliters from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, a form of liver cancer, patients with cirrhosis and healthy donors.
The company’s NEXPLOR technology selectively enriched liver-derived vesicles while reducing interference from vesicles originating in other tissues and blood cells.
According to the study, the liver-specific vesicles enabled researchers to identify 57% more proteins than conventional bulk extracellular vesicle preparations, with improved reproducibility.
The tissue-specific approach also identified 86 proteins that were either uniquely detected or significantly elevated in patients with liver disease compared with healthy donors. Conventional bulk vesicle analysis identified only four unique proteins and no statistically significant differences.
The identified proteins were associated with biological processes including fibrosis, abnormal fat metabolism and inflammation.
Researchers also found that the liver-specific vesicles revealed molecular signatures distinguishing hepatocellular carcinoma from cirrhosis, which were not detected using conventional bulk vesicle analysis.
Additional analysis of microRNAs, small RNA molecules involved in regulating gene expression, supported the findings. The liver-specific samples identified molecular signals associated with liver cancer, while conventional samples primarily reflected broader inflammatory responses.
“EVs are released by virtually every tissue into the bloodstream. They carry health and disease markers that can be traced back to their origin, much as a tissue biopsy would,” said Dr. Tomás Dias, Chief Scientific Officer of Mursla Bio.
“To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive validation to date of a platform for tissue-specific EV isolation from human plasma,” Dias added.
The NEXPLOR technology is a core component of Mursla Bio’s broader diagnostic platform, which supports the development of EvoLiver, the company’s FDA Breakthrough Device-designated liver cancer diagnostic program.
The company is also developing additional tissue-specific panels and exploring applications in disease monitoring, detection of molecular residual disease, patient selection and drug development.
“Much of liquid biopsy has focused on measuring more analytes. Our thesis is that biological context matters as much as analytical depth,” said Pierre Arsène, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mursla Bio. “That is the foundation of EvoLiver and of the precision medicine programs we are building with pharma partners.”
Mursla Bio said the findings provide a scientific foundation for expanding its liquid biopsy technology beyond liver disease into other diagnostic and precision medicine applications.
The research validates the platform’s ability to capture tissue-specific molecular information, although further clinical studies will be needed to establish its diagnostic performance and utility in routine patient care.
