Mursla Bio, a pioneering company in precision medicine and diagnostics, has officially announced the peer-reviewed validation of its innovative tissue-specific extracellular vesicle (TS-EV) platform. This groundbreaking technology is poised to redefine liquid biopsy by providing a sophisticated multiomic analysis of living cells within targeted tissues, initially focusing on the liver. The validation, published in the prestigious Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, underscores the platform's potential to offer a less invasive yet highly comprehensive diagnostic solution.
This significant research builds upon preliminary findings first released in June 2025. Mursla Bio's NEXPLOR technology demonstrated remarkable selectivity in enriching hepatocyte-derived EVs (h-EVs) over EVs originating from other tissues such as lung, kidney, breast, adipose, and muscle, as well as blood cells prevalent in plasma. By analyzing the multiomic content of h-EVs from less than 2 mL blood samples of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), cirrhosis, and healthy individuals, researchers compared these against bulk EV preparations.
The study revealed that h-EVs provided access to a distinct part of the hepatocyte proteome, identifying an impressive 57% more proteins with enhanced reproducibility compared to bulk EVs. While bulk EVs were largely dominated by plasma proteins secreted by the liver, h-EVs were rich in the internal cellular machinery of hepatocytes, including membrane, cytosolic, and mitochondrial proteins, as well as crucial EV-defining markers. This enabled the identification of 86 proteins uniquely present or significantly elevated in liver disease conditions when compared to healthy donors, a stark contrast to the mere 4 unique proteins found in bulk EVs, which showed no significant differential signal. These 86 proteins were indicative of shared pathologies between cirrhosis and HCC, such as fibrosis, disrupted fat metabolism, and inflammation. Furthermore, the h-EV fraction successfully distinguished HCC-defining proteins and a broader network of interconnected proteins when comparing HCC with cirrhosis, a capability absent in paired bulk EV analysis.
Complementary small-RNA sequencing corroborated these findings. While the h-EV fraction showed fewer differentially expressed microRNAs than bulk EVs in the same comparative analysis, only the microRNAs from h-EVs correlated with HCC signaling. The bulk EV microRNAs, in contrast, pointed towards a more generalized inflammatory response. The presence of identical h-EVs within the bulk EV preparation suggests that the challenge of tissue specificity, which has historically hindered microRNAs as liquid biopsy biomarkers, can now be effectively overcome.
The NEXPLOR technology, a key component described in the manuscript, forms the backbone of Mursla Bio's extensive TS-EV platform. The hepatocyte panel marks the first of many applications, with the underlying discovery and validation methodology designed for expansion to other tissues. Additional diagnostic panels are currently under development, promising a wider array of clinical applications.
Dr. Tomás Dias, Chief Scientific Officer at Mursla Bio, emphasized the biological significance of their work, stating that extracellular vesicles are released into the bloodstream by nearly every tissue, carrying health and disease markers traceable to their origin, much like a traditional tissue biopsy. He highlighted that this study represents the most comprehensive validation of a platform for tissue-specific EV isolation from human plasma to date.
Pierre Arsène, Founder and CEO of Mursla Bio, underscored the company's core philosophy: beyond merely measuring more analytes, biological context is equally crucial to analytical depth. This principle forms the bedrock of their EvoLiver platform and the precision medicine initiatives being developed in collaboration with pharmaceutical partners. The platform's broad utility spans various clinical diagnostic areas, including disease surveillance, molecular residual disease (MRD) detection, and precision medicine applications such as patient stratification, pharmacodynamic biomarkers, and companion diagnostics.
In summary, Mursla Bio's validated TS-EV platform represents a significant advancement in the field of liquid biopsy, offering an unprecedented level of detail in understanding tissue-specific disease biology from a simple blood draw. This innovative technology promises to enhance early detection, improve patient management, and facilitate the development of more targeted therapies across a spectrum of diseases, beginning with critical liver conditions.