News
Innovation Radar: How to Detect Increased Risk for Renal Manifestations in SLE (lupus) patients
Patients suffering from the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) develop autoantibodies to chromatin and often to neutrophil proteins as well. As immune complexes of these antibodies can be deposited in kidneys, they contribute to the frequent and dangerous organ manifestation of lupus nephritis.
Recent studies suggest that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) might act as a source of autoantigens. NETs consist of chromatin as well as granule proteins and play an important role in immune defense after their release from neutrophils to sites of infection. Degradation of NETs is mainly promoted by DNase1 digestion which is impaired in a subset of SLE patients. A strong correlation between NET degradation status and lupus nephritis, e.g. glomerulonephritis, has been shown and therefore offers a new diagnostic method for detecting an increased risk of SLE patients to develop renal manifestations.
Based on these observations, scientists of the German Max Planck Society (MPG) have developed a technology for the assessment of an increased risk in SLE patients for developing renal manifestations – a finding that is not achieved by determination of anti-dsDNA antibody titers.
The technology measures a NET-degradation status upon incubation with a sample of body fluid (e.g. blood or serum) from a SLE patient, whereby a poor NET-degradation corresponds to a higher probability of developing renal manifestations. Protocols for obtaining NETs from healthy donors as well as preparing NETs artificially are provided. Degradation status is assessed by determination of released/present NET-component(s) (e.g. neutrophil elastase) after incubation with a sample from a patient and either by comparison with the results obtained from a healthy donor or a control sample (buffer). Determination of NET-degradation can be achieved by the use of fluorescence spectrometry, ELISA or EIA. An international patent application has been filed.
The technology is available for licensing via Max Planck Innovation.
Innovation Radar: Starving Cells Improves Chemotherapy
A few days of fasting may delay tumor progression and improve chemotherapy, a new study in mice reports. The findings indicate that fasting prior to chemotherapy treatment protects animals – and possibly humans – against the side effects of treatment. Here, Valter Longo and colleagues show in mice that fasting for 2 days in the absence of other treatments can delay the progression of different types of cancer, and may in some cases be just as effective as toxic chemotherapy drugs. However, the combination of fasting and chemotherapy appears to be more effective at making normal cells stronger (more able to resist damage from chemotherapeutic drugs) than either alone. In fact, combined fasting and chemotherapy promoted long-term, cancer-free survival in up to 40 percent of mice with neuroblastomas. Although clinical trials testing the effect of fasting in cancer treatment are still in early stages, these studies suggest that fasting cycles have the potential to boost the efficacy of chemotherapy. The results are particularly relevant for advanced-stage patients for whom standard treatment is ineffective.
The research is published in this week’s Science Translational Medicine (Sci. Transl. Med. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3003293)
Innovation Radar: Approved Drug Counters Effects of Alzheimer’s in Mice
An FDA-approved drug called bexarotene counters many of the effects of Alzheimer’s disease in mouse models, researchers report. The build-up of protein fragments called amyloid-beta is a key feature of the disease; everyone’s brain produces amyloid-beta, but in healthy individuals, enzymes break the fragments down, with help from a protein called ApoE. Paige Cramer and colleagues knew that bexarotene activates a protein that helps switch on the ApoEgene, and they hypothesized that the drug might therefore enhance the clearance of amyloid-beta in the brain. They gave the drug to mice engineered to have an Alzheimer’s-like condition and observed that levels of the protein fragments in the mice’s brains dropped substantially within just a few days. The mice also showed improvements in their cognitive, social and olfactory performance. Bexarotene, also known as Targretin, is currently used to treat a form of skin cancer and has a favorable safety profile, the authors note. The drug activates the nuclear receptor protein known as RXR, which binds one of two other nuclear receptors, PPAR and LXR. These receptor pairs then activate the transcription of the ApoE gene.
The research is published online by the journal Science at this week’s Science Express website.
Company News: Achmea and LSP Launch LSP-Health Economics Fund for Innovation in Healthcare
Dutch healthcare insurer Achmea and investment company Life Sciences Partners (LSP) have set up an investment fund for innovation in healthcare, the LSP-Health Economics Fund (LSP-HEF). On 5 September 2011, the healthcare insurer already announced its intention to make € 50 million available for this purpose. As of today, the fund is ‘open for business’ and will seek to invest in international technology companies that may contribute to increased healthcare quality and better cost control.
The fund will be managed by Life Sciences Partners (LSP) a pan-European investment firm specialized in healthcare and biotechnology investments. LSP has recruited a dedicated investment team consisting of investment and technology specialists as well as experts for health economics and healthcare processes. The team will target European and US-based companies that have products close to or on the market. The main focus are companies offering promising technologies or products targeting indications such as cardiovascular diseases, lung disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia – diseases that more and more people are afflicted with and for which society pays a high price.
New technologies and products for these indications can lead to better control of health care costs while improve the quality of patient care, for example by using better diagnostics, applying minimally invasive treatments or preventing complications. In spite of this, it is the experience of Achmea and LSP that many of these companies struggle to penetrate the market quickly due to an insufficiently developed health economics case; this is often due to the fact that the technology has not been developed together with healthcare providers, not all stakeholders have been considered, and that a sales process that requires addressing each individual physician can slow down market take-up.
Through the unique cooperation between an insurance company and an investment firm, Achmea and LSP can efficiently support such companies in bringing their technologies to the market. Achmea will provide access to its know-how, expertise and database to help build the healthcare economics cases. Moreover, Achmea will help companies to find their way in the healthcare market, and will bring new technologies to the attention of healthcare providers.