Last checked at 31 Dec 2021 07:00
31 December 2021
Oncimmune Holdings plc
("Oncimmune" or the "Company")
Publication of results from ImmunoINSIGHTS COVID-19 autoantibody profiling panel
Follows research collaboration with the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Oncimmune Holdings plc (AIM: ONC.L), the leading global immunodiagnostics group, today announces the publication of a paper entitled: "Paradoxical sex-specific patterns of autoantibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection" 1 arising from the research collaboration between Oncimmune and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles ("Cedars-Sinai"). The paper focuses on the sex-specific autoimmune reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 following mildly symptomatic infection as well as the prolonged effects of COVID-19 well beyond the initial infection and recovery phase.
This collaborative study focused on gaining an understanding of how COVID-19 infection affects a person's immune system in ways that might persist over time. The research discovered that COVID-19 can trigger a broad autoantibody response that can last well beyond the initial infection and recovery phase, even among individuals who were only mildly affected or without any symptoms at all.
The research team used Oncimmune's COVID-19 autoantibody profiling panel, an advanced panel of serological measures to understand which parts of the adaptive immune system are still activated for up to six months following full apparent recovery from the initial COVID-19 infection. The results showed that a wide array of autoantibodies remain elevated, including those linked to autoimmune conditions such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
The study, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, suggests that COVID-19 infection leads to a persistent activation of antibodies against multiple different organ systems and tissues, many of which have been linked to classic autoimmune diseases that typically affect women more than men. In this research, however, men were more affected than women. This latest study is the first to report both the presence of elevated autoantibodies after mild or asymptomatic infection and their persistence over time.
Dr Adam M Hill, CEO of Oncimmune said: "As the life science industry continues to work intensely to research and respond to the effects of COVID-19, and specifically to understand the immune system response to the disease, we are delighted to see this publication that further validates the ImmunoINSIGHTS Infectious Diseases panel and contributes to the knowledge base so that clinical outcomes from the disease can improve."
1. https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12967-021-03184-8
For further information:
Oncimmune Holdings plc
Dr Adam M Hill, Chief Executive Officer
Matthew Hall, Chief Financial Officer
contact@oncimmune.co.uk
Singer Capital Markets (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)
Aubrey Powell, Harry Gooden, George Tzimas, James Fischer
+44 (0)20 7496 3000
WG Partners (Joint Broker)
David Wilson, Nigel Barnes
+44 (0)20 3705 9321
Media enquiries:
FTI Consulting
Ben Atwell, Michael Trace, Alex Davis
Oncimmune@fticonsulting.com
+44 (0)20 3727 1000
About Oncimmune
Oncimmune is a leading immunodiagnostics developer, primarily focused on the growing fields of immuno-oncology, autoimmune disease and infectious diseases. Oncimmune has a diversified and growing revenue base both from its contract discovery and development service business whose platform delivers actionable insights into therapies to the Company's pharmaceutical and biotech partners as well as its portfolio of diagnostic products to detect early-stage cancer.
Our understanding of the immune system enables us to harness its sophisticated response to disease to detect cancer earlier and to support the development of better therapies. The key to improving cancer survival is early detection and better selection for therapy. As a company, we are driven by our passion to improve cancer survival and to give people extra time.
Oncimmune's ImmunoINSIGHTS platform enables life science organisations to optimise drug development and delivery, leading to more effectively targeted and safer treatments for patients. Oncimmune's immunodiagnostic technology, EarlyCDT, can detect and help identify cancer on average four years earlier than standard clinical diagnosis. Our lead diagnostic test, EarlyCDT Lung, targets a vast market estimated to grow to £3.8bn by 2024. With over 200,000 tests already performed for patients worldwide and its use being supported by peer reviewed data in over 12,000 patients, we are poised to become an integral component of future lung cancer detection programmes, globally.
Oncimmune's diagnostic products business is located at its laboratory facility in Nottingham, UK and its ImmunoINSIGHTS service business at its discovery research centre in Dortmund, Germany. The ImmunoINSIGHTS business development team are based in the US and Europe and Oncimmune is seeking to replicate the Dortmund facility in the US in the medium term.
For more information, visit www.oncimmune.com
What is ImmunoINSIGHTS?
The ImmunoINSIGHTS service business leverages Oncimmune's technology platform and methodologies across multiple diseases, to offer life-science organisations actionable insights for therapies across the development and product lifecycle. Our core immune-profiling technology is underpinned by our library of over eight thousand immunogenic proteins, one of the largest of its kind. This helps identify trial participants and patients into clinically relevant subgroups, enabling development of targeted and more effective treatments.