Science

The Yenos tests stand out compared to other tests:

The Yenos tests are the only multi-cancer, multi-disease tests that can be performed using a urine sample, making them truly non-invasive.
The Yenos tests do not sequence your DNA/RNA, while other multi-cancer tests do.
The Yenos tests measure the levels of microRNAs, but microRNAs are ubiquitous, and they cannot be used to profile an individual.

The science behind the Yenos’ Multi-Cancer, Multi-Disease Early Detection tests is based on the overexpression of selected microRNAs in biological fluids at the onset of a disease, including cancers. Since 2001, when Victor Ambros (References 1,2) proposed that microRNAs regulate the posttranscriptional expression of messenger RNAs and proteins, over 150,000 peer-reviewed medical studies have identified selected microRNAs as biomarkers for cancer and other diseases.

Technologies employed for microRNA quantification from blood or other biological fluids exploit transcription to DNA followed by PCR amplification, a process with known quantification issues for short RNAs, such as the 22 nucleotide long microRNAs. Other technologies use microarrays with questionable hybridization efficiency. These deficiencies inspired us to develop a novel nanopore-array-based sensing assay that directly measures microRNA copies from biological fluids, i.e., the Yenos Tests.

The Yenos technology was first described in 2020 (Reference 3) and recently patented (Reference 4). The first step entails the isolation of total RNA, including microRNAs, from serum or urine using commercial RNA isolation kits. The second step includes the hybridization of a few microliters of the RNA isolate with a Yenos proprietary probe, complementary to the microRNA target, and the third step detection via a single-molecule ion-conductance nanopore experiment (see video of an experiment).

700 peer-reviewed medical studies each propose miR-141 (Refer. 2) and miR-375 as cancer biomarkers, and, 7000 studies propose miR-21 as a general biomarker for multiple cancers and multiple diseases (Reference 5). We also conducted several studies using miR-21, miR-141, and miR-375 with blood and urine samples from healthy individuals as well as from newly diagnosed cancer (breast, prostate, and pancreatic) patients ahead of any treatment (Reference 6), and we confirmed the literature findings. As proposed (Reference 1), microRNA dysregulation is the first occurrence that leads to posttranscriptional changes in messenger RNA and protein. Therefore, miRNA dysregulation identifies the onset of cancer ahead of tumor formation. Whether or not miRNA dysregulation before tumor formation can be reversed or not, remains to be seen.

References:

  1. Ambros, V. MicroRNAs: tiny regulators with great potential. Cell, 107, 823–826, (2001). Doi.10.1016/S0092-8674(01)00616-X
  2. Mitchell, P. et al. Circulating microRNAs as stable blood-based markers for cancer detection. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 105,10513-10518 (2008). doi:10.1073/pnas.0804549105
  3. Kang, A. S. W., Bernasconi, J. G., Jack, W. & Kanavarioti A. Ready-to-use nanopore platform for the detection of any DNA/RNA oligo at attomole range using an osmium tagged complementary probe. Sci Rep. 10, 19790 (2020). doi:10.1038/s41598-020-76667-1
  4. Nanopore platform for DNA/RNA oligo detection using an osmium tagged complementary probe, Patent No: US 11,111,527 B1, issued 9-7-2021 and US 11,427,859, issued 9-30-2022, and Osmium Tagged Probes for Nucleic Acid Detection, US 11,884,968, issued 01-30-2024. International patent applications were filed in 2023 in Europe, Canada, Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, China, and Brazil.
  5. Jenike, A. E., & Halushka, M. K. miR-21: A non-specific biomarker of all maladies. Review. Biomarker research, 9, 18 (2021). doi.org/10.1186/s40364-021-00272-1
  6. Kanavarioti A. Femtomolar-level PCR-free quantification of microRNA cancer biomarkers in serum. (2023); preprint in doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.30.522268