Abstract:
A solution is described for preserving cells and/or extra-cellular components in naturally expressed bodily fluids (e.g. saliva, sputum, urine) for further downstream analysis and/or for diagnosis of a medical condition. The solution may be hypertonic with respect to blood. Techniques are described for enriching cells from a sample of a naturally expressed bodily fluid, and/or for analysis, e.g. to diagnose medical conditions such as cancer, obesity, infections, autism, Alzheimer disease, hetotological disorders, cardiovascular disease or disorders, diabetes, vulnerable plack, LTBI, HIV infection, COPD, ACQS.
Abstract:
The disclosure relates to devices, solutions and methods for collecting and processing samples of bodily fluids containing cells (as well as embodiments for the collection, and processing and/or analysis of other fluids including toxic and/or hazardous substances/fluids). In addition, the disclosure relates generally to function genomic studies and to the isolation and preservation of cells from saliva and other bodily fluids (e.g., urine), for cellular analysis. With respect to devices for collection of bodily fluids, some embodiments include two mating bodies, a cap and a tube (for example), where, in some embodiments, the cap includes a closed interior space for holding a sample preservative solution and mates with the tube to constitute the (closed) sample collection device. Upon mating, the preservation solution flows into the closed interior space to preserve cells in the bodily fluid. The tube is configured to receive a donor sample of bodily fluid (e.g., saliva, urine), which can then be subjected to processing to extract a plurality of cells. The plurality of cells can be further processed to isolate one and/or another cell type therefrom. The plurality of cells, as well as the isolated cell type(s), can be analyzed for functional genomic and epigenetic studies, as well as biomarker discovery.
Abstract:
A bodily fluid sample collection device for the collection of naturally expressed bodily fluids (e.g. saliva), comprises a composition for extracting and preserving nucleic acids in the collected sample. In some embodiments, the composition is effective in extracting and preserving nucleic acids from a cell organelle. The organelle may be a mitochondrion. In some embodiments, the composition combines multiple lysing agents. In some embodiments, the composition comprises at least one ionic detergent, at least one non-ionic detergent, and a salt.