Adaptive Biotechnologies Launches National Clinical Trial to Develop Novel T-Cell Based Diagnostic for Lyme Disease
July 28 2020 - 6:04PM
Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. (Nasdaq: ADPT) announced today the
launch of ImmuneSense Lyme™, a research study to inform the
development of an improved test to detect Lyme disease in the early
stages of an infection, when the disease is most treatable but
often missed or misdiagnosed. The study calls for approximately
1,000 participants in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and upper
Midwest, where 96% of Lyme cases occur. Participants can be
evaluated at a local study site in their area or soon via
tele-health in the comfort and safety of their own homes.
“Lyme disease can be impossible to treat, particularly if it is
not diagnosed early, and the symptoms of late stage Lyme disease
can be so severe that it causes people to lose their jobs and have
trouble caring for their families,” said Linda Giampa, executive
director, Bay Area Lyme Foundation. “We are always interested in
research that uncovers new information that may help understand how
our bodies mount an immune response to this horrible disease.”
Lyme disease can be especially complex to diagnose in the
absence of more accurate testing because 77 percent of patients
experience symptoms that overlap with many autoimmune and
neurological diseases, as well as other tick-borne diseases.
Current serology tests, the standard in Lyme disease diagnosis,
detect antibodies made by the body in response to an infection.
These antibodies can take several weeks to develop, resulting in a
high false negative rate of 60 – 70 percent in people who are
tested early after a tick bite but have not yet developed
antibodies. Additionally, current tests cannot tell the difference
between an active infection and one that has resolved, so many
people will test positive using serology for Lyme disease long
after successful treatment.
“The immune system of someone who recently contracted Lyme
disease may be able to tell us important information that current
tests cannot. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning,
we are looking at how our bodies naturally detect and respond to
Lyme disease, which is an entirely new approach to diagnosis,” said
Lance Baldo, Chief Medical Officer of Adaptive Biotechnologies.
“Our goal with this new study is to accelerate the development of a
diagnostic focused on early detection of Lyme disease so people can
be diagnosed and treated sooner, when treatment has a better chance
of being most effective.”
In the ImmuneSense Lyme Study, Adaptive will apply its immune
medicine platform to measure the presence of specialized cells in
the immune system, called T cells, that identify the disease early
on and multiply to combat the infection. Measuring this response
may allow for accurate detection after a tick bite or the first
sign of symptoms, and in later weeks when the disease has been
treated but symptoms persist. This is the same approach that
Adaptive is using with Microsoft to map and measure the immune
response of T cells to many diseases, including COVID-19 through
its ImmuneRACE virtual clinical study.
How to Join ImmuneSense Lyme
The study is seeking participants who may have signs and
symptoms of Lyme disease or were recently diagnosed with Lyme
disease and have not taken antibiotics for more than three days.
Signs and symptoms of Lyme disease can be assessed at a study site
or soon via tele-health. Study sites are enrolling in Connecticut,
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and
Wisconsin. Eligible participants can learn more about a study site
in their area and register at www.ImmuneSenseLyme.com.
About Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is transmitted to
humans via infected ticks. A bull’s-eye rash is one of the
hallmarks of the disease, but other symptoms can be non-specific
and even overlap with symptoms of COVID-19. These include body
aches, fever, breathlessness, eye pain, diarrhea, chest tightness,
headache, fatigue or joint pain. If left untreated, Lyme disease
can become a serious illness for many people, but if caught early,
it can typically be treated with antibiotics and long-term
complications can be avoided. Based on data reported by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, there are an estimated 427,000
new cases of Lyme disease in the United States every year.
About Adaptive Biotechnologies
Adaptive Biotechnologies is a commercial-stage biotechnology
company focused on harnessing the inherent biology of the adaptive
immune system to transform the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
We believe the adaptive immune system is nature’s most finely tuned
diagnostic and therapeutic for most diseases, but the inability to
decode it has prevented the medical community from fully leveraging
its capabilities. Our proprietary immune medicine platform reveals
and translates the massive genetics of the adaptive immune system
with scale, precision and speed to develop products in life
sciences research, clinical diagnostics, and drug discovery. We
have two commercial products, and a robust clinical pipeline to
diagnose, monitor and enable the treatment of diseases such as
cancer, autoimmune conditions and infectious diseases. Our goal is
to develop and commercialize immune-driven clinical products
tailored to each individual patient. For more information, please
visit adaptivebiotech.com and follow us on
www.twitter.com/adaptivebiotech.
For more information, press only:
Beth Keshishian, Adaptive Media, (917) 912-7195,
media@adaptivebiotech.com
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