Diagnostic firm MicrosensDx is working with The Mayr Group at Imperial College London to develop a novel biomarker test for the early recognition of sepsis. Based on MicrosensDx’s IP and technology, and designed to fit with existing diagnostic processes, this test could potentially fill a critical gap in patient management, offering clinicians a specific, quantitative diagnostic and prognostic solution to help prioritise appropriate treatment of sepsis.
Sepsis is a very serious disease affecting 49 million people globally. It results in 13 million deaths annually – and is implicated in 20 per cent of all deaths – imposing a staggering £15.6 billion cost per year on the UK alone. There is a clear need for routine testing to enable more specific detection and prioritisation of sepsis treatment, as current biomarkers focus mainly on detecting inflammation, and most proposed biomarkers have limitations. A successful test to profile the risk of sepsis could therefore improve treatment, enable more timely and appropriate interventions, and reduce costs.
MicrosensDx and Imperial are applying their joint expertise and experience in infectious diseases to address this challenge, with the aim of developing a groundbreaking sepsis test based on the detection of P Complex, which increases during serious infection, with high levels linked to poor patient outcomes. The team is working on an early-stage project to evaluate the efficacy of specific antibodies against P Complex, as part of a programme to establish the first all-in-one test to stratify the risk of patients developing severe sepsis and septic shock.
“We’re really excited to collaborate on a potential solution to mitigate the devastating impact of sepsis. There is a pressing need for an early warning test that can not only rule in and rule out sepsis, but also help to stratify patients based on disease severity. We hope that this project will establish an innovative predictive test for sepsis, enabling earlier and more precise treatment decisions to be made,” commented Simon Walker, CEO of MicrosensDx.
“The sepsis biomarkers currently in clinical use lack specificity, highlighting the need for new markers with the ability to effectively stratify individual patients according to their severity of risk in a dynamic and timely fashion. Together with MicrosensDx, we aim to provide proof-of-concept for a new test, which could later be evaluated to determine its ability to accurately assess patient risk and guide targeted treatment strategies,” added Professor Manuel Mayr, British Heart Foundation (BHF) Professor for Cardiovascular Proteomics at the National Heart and Lung Institute, and Co-director of the BHF Centre of Research Excellence at Imperial.