Granted Patent B2

US 12,492,422 · App. 17/573,123 · Granted Dec 9, 2025

Inventors: Faycal Touti (Belmont, MA); Wendy Winckler Adamovich (Melrose, MA); Sophie Cazanave (Cambridge, MA); Mehar Cheema (Medford, MA); Robert S. Langer (Newton, MA)

Assignee: Sunbird Bio, Inc.

C12Q1/37G01N21/6428G01N33/542G01N33/573G01N33/582G01N2021/6432G01N2021/6439G01N2021/6441G01N2333/95G01N2800/085G01N2800/26G01N2800/7028

Abstract

Claims (29)

1 . A method comprising:

contacting a body fluid sample from a subject with a first synthetic molecule ex vivo,

wherein said first synthetic molecule comprises a first reporter and a first

cleavable linker and does not comprise a carrier, and

wherein said first synthetic molecule reacts with a first agent from said body fluid sample, such that said first agent cleaves said first cleavable linker, said cleavage causing said first reporter to form a first detectable signal;

detecting a rate of formation or an amount of said first detectable signal;

contacting said body fluid sample from said subject with a second synthetic molecule ex vivo,

wherein said second synthetic molecule comprises a second reporter and a second cleavable linker and does not comprise a carrier, and

wherein said second synthetic molecule reacts with a second agent from said body fluid sample, such that said second agent cleaves said second cleavable linker, said cleavage causing said second reporter to form a second detectable signal; and

detecting a rate of formation or an amount of said second detectable signal,

and (ii) comparing the rate of formation or amount of said first detectable signal, said second detectable signal, or both to a rate or amount observed in a population of healthy subjects and, based on the comparison, determining whether said subject has a liver disease or condition.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said comparison comprises use of a supervised Machine Learning classification algorithm, Logistic Regression, Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, Neural Networks, a continuous regression approach, Ridge Regression, Kernel Ridge Regression, Support Vector Regression, or any combination thereof.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said liver disease or condition comprises a Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a toxin mediated liver injury, a viral hepatitis, a fulminant hepatitis, an alcoholic hepatitis, an autoimmune hepatitis, a cirrhosis of the liver, a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), a cholangiocarcinoma, a primary sclerosing cholangitis, an acute or chronic rejection of a transplanted liver, an inherited liver disease or a combination thereof.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said body fluid sample is selected from the group consisting of blood, plasma, bone marrow fluid, lymphatic fluid, bile, amniotic fluid, mucosal fluid, saliva, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, spinal fluid, synovial fluid, semen, ductal aspirate, feces, stool, vaginal effluent, lachrymal fluid, tissue lysate and patient-derived cell line supernatant.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said body fluid sample comprises a rinse fluid, a conditioning media or buffer, a swab viral transport media, a saline, a culture media, or a cell culture supernatant.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein said rinse fluid is selected from the group consisting of a mouthwash rinse, a bronchioalveolar rinse, a lavage fluid, a hair wash rinse, a nasal spray effluent, a swab of any bodily surface, orifice, organ structure or solid tumor biopsies applied to saline or any media or any derivatives thereof.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said first agent and said second agent are each independently a protease.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein said protease is an endopeptidase or an exopeptidase.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein said protease is selected from the group consisting of an A20 (TNFa-induced protein 3), an abhydrolase domain containing 4, an abhydrolase domain containing 12, an abhydrolase domain containing 12B, an abhydrolase domain containing 13, an acrosin, an acylaminoacyl-peptidase, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase (ADAM), an ADAM1a, an ADAM2 (Fertilin-b), an ADAM3B, an ADAM4, an ADAM4B, an ADAM5, an ADAM6, an ADAM7, an ADAM8, an ADAM9, an ADAM10, an ADAM11, an ADAM12 metalloprotease, an ADAM15, an ADAM17, an ADAM18, an ADAM19, an ADAM20, an ADAM21, an ADAM22, an ADAM23, an ADAM28, an ADAM29, an ADAM30, an ADAM32, an ADAM33, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs (ADAMTS), an ADAMTS1, an ADAMTS2, an ADAMTS3, an ADAMTS4, an ADAMTS5/11, an ADAMTS6, an ADAMTS7, an ADAMTS8, an ADAMTS9, an ADAMTS10, an ADAMTS12, an ADAMTS13, an ADAMTS14, an ADAMTS15, an ADAMTS16, an ADAMTS17, an ADAMTS18, an ADAMTS19, an ADAMTS20, an adipocyte-enh, binding protein 1, an Afg3-like protein 1, an Afg3-like protein 2, an airway-trypsin-like protease, an aminoacylase, an aminopeptidase A, an aminopeptidase B, an aminopeptidase B-like 1, an aminopeptidase MAMS/L-RAP, an aminopeptidase N, an aminopeptidase O, an aminopeptidase P homologue, an aminopeptidase P1, an aminopeptidase PILS, an aminopeptidase Q, an aminopeptidase-like 1, an AMSH/STAMBP, an AMSH-LP/STAMBPL1, an angiotensin-converting enzyme 1 (ACE1), an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), an angiotensin-converting enzyme 3 (ACE3), an anionic trypsin (II), an apolipoprotein (a), an archaemetzincin-1, an archaemetzincin-2, an aspartoacylase, an aspartoacylase-3, an aspartyl aminopeptidase, an ataxin-3, an ataxin-3 like, an ATP/GTP binding protein 1, an ATP/GTP binding protein-like 2, an ATP/GTP binding protein-like 3, an ATP/GTP binding protein-like 4, an ATP/GTP binding protein-like 5, an ATP23 peptidase, an autophagin-1, an autophagin-2, an autophagin-3, an autophagin-4, an azurocidin, a beta lactamase, a beta-secretase 1, a beta-secretase 2, a bleomycin hydrolase, a brain serine proteinase 2, a BRCC36 (BRCA2-containing complex, sub 3), a calpain, a calpain 1, a calpain 2, a calpain 3, a calpain 4, a calpain 5, a calpain 6, a calpain 7, a calpain 7-like, a calpain 8, a calpain 9, a calpain 10, a calpain 11, a calpain 12, a calpain 13, a calpain 14, a calpain 15 (Solh protein), a cysteine protease, a carboxypeptidase A1, a carboxypeptidase A2, a carboxypeptidase A3, a carboxypeptidase A4, a carboxypeptidase A5, a carboxypeptidase A6, a carboxypeptidase B, a carboxypeptidase D, a carboxypeptidase E, a carboxypeptidase M, a carboxypeptidase N, a carboxypeptidase O, a carboxypeptidase U, a carboxypeptidase X1, a carboxypeptidase X2, a carboxypeptidase Z, a carnosine dipeptidase 1, a carnosine dipeptidase 2, a caspase recruitment domain family, member 8, a caspase, a caspase-1, a caspase-2, a caspase-3, a caspase-4/11, a caspase-5, a caspase-6, a caspase-7, a caspase-8, a caspase-9, a caspase-10, a caspase-12, a caspase-14, a caspase-14-like, a casper/FLIP, a cathepsin, a cathepsin A (CTSA), a cathepsin B (CTSB), a cathepsin C (CTSC), a cathepsin D (CTSD), a cathepsin E (CTSE), a cathepsin F, a cathepsin G, a cathepsin H (CTSH), a cathepsin K (CTSK), a cathepsin L (CTSL), a cathepsin L2, a cathepsin O, a cathepsin S (CTSS), a cathepsin V (CTSV), a cathepsin W, a cathepsin Z (CTSZ), a cationic trypsin, a cezanne/OTU domain containing 7B, a cezanne-2, a CGI-58, a chymase, a chymopasin, a chymosin, a chymotrypsin B, a chymotrypsin C, a coagulation factor IXa, a coagulation factor VIIa, a coagulation factor Xa, a coagulation factor XIa, a coagulation factor XIIa, a collagenase 1, a collagenase 2, a collagenase 3, a complement protease C1r serine protease, a complement protease C1s serine protease, a complement C1r-homolog, a complement component 2, a complement component C1ra, a complement component C1sa, a complement factor B, a complement factor D, a complement factor D-like, a complement factor I, a COPS6, a corin, a CSN5 (JAB1), a cylindromatosis protein, a cytosol alanyl aminopep-like 1, a cytosol alanyl aminopeptidase, a DDI-related protease, a DECYSIN, a Der1-like domain family, member 1, a Der1-like domain family, member 2, a Der1-like domain family, member 3, a DESC1 protease, a desert hedgehog protein, a desumoylating isopeptidase 1, a desumoylating isopeptidase 2, a dihydroorotase, a dihydropyrimidinase, a dihydropyrimidinase-related protein 1, a dihydropyrimidinase-related protein 2, a dihydropyrimidinase-related protein 3, a dihydropyrimidinase-related protein 4, a dihydropyrimidinase-related protein 5, a DINE peptidase, a dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP), a dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP1), a dipeptidyl-peptidase 4 (DPP4), a dipeptidyl-peptidase 6 (DPP6), a dipeptidyl-peptidase 8 (DPP8), a dipeptidyl-peptidase 9 (DPP9), a dipeptidylpeptidase II, a dipeptidyl-peptidase III, a dipeptidyl-peptidase 10 (DPP10), a DJ-1, a DNA-damage inducible protein, a DNA-damage inducible protein 2, a DUB-1, a DUB-2, a DUB2a, a DUB2a-like, a DUB2a-like2, a DUB6, or a combination thereof.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said first cleavable linker and/or said second cleavable linker is a peptide.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein said peptide comprises an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID Nos: 1-677.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said first cleavable linker and said second cleavable linker are directly connected to said first reporter and second reporter, respectively, through a covalent bond.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said first reporter and/or said second reporter comprises a fluorescent label.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein said fluorescent label comprises a 5-carboxyfluorescein (5-FAM), a 7-amino-4-carbamoylmethylcoumarin (ACC), a 7-Amino-4-methylcoumarin (AMC), a 2-Aminobenzoyl (Abz), a Cy7, a Cy5, a Cy3, or a (5-((2-Aminoethyl)amino)naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid) (EDANS).

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein said first synthetic molecule and/or said second synthetic molecule further comprises a fluorescent quencher.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein said fluorescent quencher is selected from the group consisting of BHQ0, BHQ1, BHQ2, BHQ3, BBQ650, ATTO 540Q, ATTO 580Q, ATTO 612Q, CPQ2, QSY-21, QSY-35, QSY-7, QSY-9, DABCYL (4-([4′-dimethylamino)phenyl]azo)benzoyl), Dnp (2,4-dinitrophenyl) and Eclipse.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said subject is a human subject.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said detectable signal is a fluorescent signal.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein said fluorescent detection is a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) signal.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (379)