Products Overview

Cancer cells spread through the blood or lymph as “circulating tumor cells” (CTCs), and bone marrow as “disseminated tumor cells” (DTCs). CTCs and DTCs represent unique diagnostic and therapeutic targets. A simple blood test capable of detecting tumor cells for screening and monitoring cancer has been a long-term goal for biomedical science. Similarly, circulating endothelial progenitor and fetal cells represent rare cell populations that may be used in genetics and physiological testing, and certain disease prediction.

Our technologies, which we brand as Vita-Assay™ and Vita-Cap™, provide efficient enrichment of viable rare cells from a single tube of blood which can then be used for cellular and molecular analyses. Using blood collection tubes, flasks and plates specially formulated with our proprietary cell adhesion matrices, Vita-Assay™ and Vita-Cap™ preserve the quality of viable cancer, angiogenic and fetal cells in a blood sample. At this time, Vita-Assay™ A16 (16-well) & A96 (96-well) and Vita-Cap™ N6 (6-mL) & N15 (15-mL) & FN6 (6-mL) & FN15 (15-ml) are intended for sale only as a research tool.

Vita-Cap™ Products

Vita-Cap™ is a series of blood collection tubes and flasks specially formulated using our proprietary cell adhesion matrices (CAM) to capture and preserve viable rare circulating cells in a single step from blood or tissue fluids. Vita-Cap™ decreases the manual labor required to process a blood sample while simultaneously increasing the efficiency of rare cell isolation. As it is primarily formulated in standard blood collection tubes and flasks, this device will simplify blood collection and sample testing while preserving the viability of rare circulating cells.

Vita-Cap™ enriches one in a thousand to one in a billion tumor cells from blood and enables molecular characterization of the enriched cells using analytic tools including immunocytochemistry, immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, FISH, cytogenetics, quantitative RT-PCR, DNA microarray, proteomics and genomics.

Vita-Cap™ is offered in a 6-mL blood collection tube format (Vita-Cap™ N6), a 15-mL blood collection tube format (Vita-Cap™ N15), a 6-mL flask format (Vita-Cap™ FN6) and a 15-mL flask format (Vita-Cap™ FN15).

Vita-Assay™ Products

Vita-Assay™ is a series of cell culture plates specially formulated using our proprietary cell adhesion matrices (CAM) to capture and preserve viable rare circulating cells after removal of red blood cells from blood or tissue fluids. Vita-Assay™ is particularly useful for the isolation of rare circulating cells that involves further culturing for propagation of the rare cells. Similar to Vita-Cap™, Vita-Assay™ enables molecular characterization of the enriched cells using analytic tools including immunocytochemistry, immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, FISH, cytogenetics, quantitative RT-PCR, DNA microarray, proteomics and genomics. Vita-Assay™ is offered in a 16-well glass slide format (Vita-Assay™ A16) and a 96-well plate format (Vita-Assay™ A96).

Vita-Assay™ and Vita-Cap™ Advantages:

1. Molecular analysis of cancer for research purposes using only 1-3 mL of blood, 1 mL of bone marrow samples, or 10 mL of effusions.
2. One-hundred thousand fold enrichment of viable tumor cells in whole blood and bone marrow.
3. Enriched cells are viable, and suitable for further molecular analyses.
4. A novel sample preparation that concentrates viable tumor cells from blood, lymph, bone marrow, biopsies and tissue fluids directly onto a microscopic slide or culture plate.

Tumor angiogenesis and metastasis monoclonal antibody inhibitors and indicators

Vitatex has a series of monoclonal antibodies that direct against tumor cell surface antigens involved in the development of human malignant tumors and metastasis. These monoclonal antibodies are potential cancer diagnostic and therapeutic targets.

Some of these monoclonal antibodies are inhibitory to tumor cell invasion and metastasis. For example, DPP4 monoclonal antibodies inhibit degradation of collagenous matrices in a tumor and stop tumor spreading and developing new blood vessels. These antibodies are similar to antibodies normally made by the body´s immune system that fight disease, and are promising non-toxic anti-cancer drug targets.