HAIFA, Israel, July 23rd, 2020 -- Researchers at Israel’s Rabin Medical Center (comprised of Beilinson and Hasharon Hospitals) in collaboration with MeMed, have published prospective data on the potential utility of the analysis of IP-10, a host immune biomarker, in managing the care and treatment of patients with severe COVID-19 infection.
Initial data from the prospective study shows that continuous and rapid measurements of IP-10, a biomarker associated with inflammatory disease including infectious diseases and immune dysfunction, can be a valuable resource for predicting disease severity and progression, monitoring inflammatory status and personalizing treatment strategies for patients with severe COVID-19. The research findings were published in medRxiv (the preprint server for health sciences).
“In the majority of COVID-19 positive patients, the host mounts a localized immune response sufficient to clear the virus from the upper airways and possibly the lungs, following which the immune response recedes and the patient recovers. But in some patients, less than 15%, hyperinflammation or a ‘cytokine storm’ is triggered, which has been implicated in acute lung injury, multiple organ failure and mortality,” said Dr. Boaz Tadmor, Head of Rabin Medical Center’s Central Research Authority. “A key challenge for clinicians in managing care for these patients is the lack of sufficient data on predictive biomarkers, as well as preventive measures and continuous ways to measure COVID-19-induced hyperinflammation. We are extremely grateful to the MeMed team for their professionalism and their dedicated collaboration which made this study possible.”
Dr. Shaul Lev, Head of the Department of General Intensive Care at Rabin Medical Center’s Hasharon Hospital and a leading author of the study, added: “This is the first study to investigate how real-time measurements of IP-10, a host-immune protein biomarker, can be used to monitor and regulate inflammation in severe COVID-19 patients. It provides preliminary evidence suggesting further studies are warranted and that rapid, continuous measurement of the host-immune response with MeMed Key™ can inform COVID-19 treatment decisions and enable changes to clinical practice that personalize care for individual patients.“
The Rabin Medical Center study team used MeMed’s pioneering technology platform MeMed Key™, which enables highly sensitive measurements of multiple host immune proteins, including IP-10, within minutes at the point of need. Over the course of the study, the researchers evaluated more than 502 serial IP-10 measurements from 52 patients admitted to the ward and ICU at the Rabin Medical Center’s Hasharon Hospital. High IP-10 levels correlated with increased COVID-19 severity and mortality1. Personalized immunomodulation, therapeutic interventions aimed at modifying the immune response, was shown to decrease IP-10 levels.
Eran Eden, MeMed’s co-founder and CEO, added: “We’re excited to join forces with our colleagues at Rabin Medical Center for this pivotal study. The collaboration builds on years of work developing a technology that decodes the signals of the immune system and provides physicians with vital insights to make better informed treatment decisions. We’re grateful to our research collaborators and proud to be part of a team that is focused on addressing significant clinical dilemmas, working towards solutions that meaningfully improve care and outcomes for COVID-19 patients.”
About MeMed
Our mission is to translate the immune system's complex signals into simple insights that transform the way diseases are diagnosed and treated, profoundly benefiting patients and society. For additional information on MeMed, please visit http://www.me-med.com.
About MeMed Key™
MeMed Key™ is a first-of-its-kind technology platform, enabling highly sensitive measurements of multiple proteins, within minutes, at the point of need. It opens the way to quantification of a vast array of human proteins in healthy and disease states, where and when it actually matters. The MeMed Key™ development program has been partially funded by the US Department of Defense and the EU Commission. MeMed Key™ has received a CE Mark in Europe and AMAR clearance from the Israeli Ministry of Health.
References
1. Lev, S. et al. Real-time IP-10 measurements as a new tool for inflammation regulation within a clinical decision support protocol for managing severe COVID-19 patients. medRxiv, 22 July 2020, https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.21.20158782
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