The PIK3CA mutation activates PI3K (Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase) protein and PI3K activates several signaling pathways of tyrosine kinase receptors. Activated tyrosine kinase represses the function and excitometabolism of protein which inhibits cell survival and division. These abnormal changes initiate the process of cancer development by activating the protein involved in cell growth. PIK3CA mutations are found with 25 to 40 % frequency in various types of cancer like colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer.

PNAClamp™ PIK3CA Mutation Detection Kit utilizes modified PCR technology, using optimized PNA probes that tightly bind to wild type DNA templates. This tight binding to the wild type DNA templates result in no amplification of the wild type DNA template in PCR reaction while the mutated genes, especially with SNPs, the PCR amplification is processed for multiplication of the mutated DNA sequences.

These characteristic enable PIK3CA Mutation Detection Kit to detect even a small amount of mutated PIK3CA gene in a short time (ca. 2 hours) with high sensibility (detection limit <0.5%). Therefore no additional experiment is necessary and only real-time PCR reaction with this kit is necessary for detecting mutated genes in PIK3CA.