The Technology
Current treatment of Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) is an empiric process, which involves decisions based on the response to therapies by the average patient, without taking into account the basic differences between patients, their specific immune status at a given time point, and their evolving stage of disease. The flaws of this population-based approach are reflected in relatively disappointing response rates of patients to various treatments (>50% non-responders), leading to extended periods of uncontrolled inflammation resulting in progressive intestinal damage and severe compromise of quality of life. Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) is an essential factor in the disordered inflammatory response that characterizes diseases such as IBD. The dawn of anti-TNFα therapy was a breakthrough for IBD treatment and was shown to be effective for treating various forms of the disease. Yet the costs of biologics are extremely high, and no treatment response predictor exists to date. The fact that some patients have sustained response and others respond in the short term and later lose response, can be leveraged to identify biomarkers of response, both at short and long term, and monitor therapy in a flexible and highly efficacious manner. The researchers have developed a patented method to predict the clinical outcome of IBD treatment with biologics, based on the patient’s tissue biopsy, prior to treatment initiation. The method consists of analyzing biopsy composition, the frequency of various immune cell populations as well as genomic data and performing meta-analysis and data deconvolution.
Advantages
- Tailored therapy
- Cost savings
Applications and Opportunities
- IBD Treatment response prediction to biologics
- Companion diagnostic
- In-vitro diagnostics (IVD)
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