Introduction

Nucleosomes consist of DNA wrapped around a histone octamer core like thread on a spool to condense DNA as chromatin into chromosomes. Diseases such as cancer or inflammation lead to cell death which causes chromatin fragmentation and release of nucleosomes into the blood. The Nu.QTM platform exploits the different compositions of circulating nucleosomes in the blood of humans that occurs with disease and has been used to detect and identify cancer even at early stages. The objectives of this study are to quantify and better characterize nucleosomes in dogs with various stages of hemangiosarcoma (HSA) using the Nu.QTM platform of assays.

Methods

A total of 50 dogs diagnosed with HSA and 65 healthy controls were recruited for this study. The HSA samples were recruited from TAMU or purchased from various biobanks. All control samples were recruited from TAMU. Graphpad Prism v.8 was used to make comparisons between HSA and controls and within the HSA cohort.

Results

Dogs with hemangiosarcoma had an approximately 10-fold increase in their plasma nucleosome concentrations compared to controls (AUC 84.5%). Nucleosome concentrations increased with the stage of the disease.

Conclusion

The Nu.QTM platform was able to reliably detect elevated nucleosome concentrations in the plasma of dogs. Furthermore, it appears that nucleosomes may be useful for differentiating cancer from healthy individuals in canines. Further testing is underway to better characterize HSA and optimize the Nu.QTM platform for canine HSA detection.

Funding Information

Salary funding for Tasha Miller was provided by the Fred and Vola Palmer Chair in Comparative Oncology held by Dr. Wilson-Robles.