VolitionRx says new data demonstrate Nu.Q's effectiveness in monitoring treatment of Sepsis

VolitionRx Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:VNRX), in partnership with Swiss-based Santersus AG, has reported that new data demonstrates Nu.Q’s effectiveness in monitoring treatment of Sepsis. 

The comoany noted that an abstract has been released at the International Society for Apheresis meeting (e-ISFA), which is being held virtually this year.

The poster presentation entitled, “Therapeutic Removal of NETs from Blood in a Pig Model of Sepsis,” was given by Dr Andrew Aswani, consultant in Intensive Care Medicine & Anesthesia at a leading London hospital and chief medical officer of Santersus AG. 

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VolitionRx said the poster includes data showing that Nu.Q is an effective method for monitoring Santersus’ highly selective plasmapheresis treatment targeting Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs) in sepsis.

“Our data indicated that the Nu.Q assay may have wide applicability to monitor the treatment of diseases with a NET component and potentially may also be used for patient selection,” said Dr Aswani in a statement. 

“This is especially important given the wide range of diseases where NETosis plays a role such as COVID-19, sepsis, autoimmune diseases and cancer. Santersus has already begun the next phase of studies that are also using Volition’s Nu.Q assays, including our first human trial, and we look forward to sharing the results in the coming months.”

Dr Jake Micallef, Volition’s chief scientific officer, added: “Santersus’ highly selective plasmapheresis treatment is demonstrably effective in the removal of up to 99% of circulating NETs from animals in septic shock as measured by our Nu.Q NETs assay. The results also show that the treatment leads to a stabilization of NETs in circulation and a great improvement in the well-being of the treated animal. This is the first study reported to use Volition’s simple, low-cost Nu.Q immunoassays to monitor response to a treatment.”

VolitionRx said that NETs are made of nucleosomes and are associated with sepsis. Santersus investigated the removal of NETs from the circulation of a pig model of sepsis using the Santersus NucleoCapture therapeutic plasmapheresis method and monitored the therapy using Volition’s 45-minute, automated Nu.Q immunoassay as a surrogate measure for circulating NET levels.

Plasmapheresis treated and untreated animals were monitored by a variety of physiological and biochemical parameters including lactate levels (an indicator of sepsis severity), vasopressor requirements (septic shock leads to low blood pressure which is ameliorated by treatment with vasopressors), and urine output (urine output falls during septic shock).

VolitionRx said Nu.Q immunoassays successfully monitored the rise in NETs caused by sepsis. Santersus also demonstrated that the plasmapheresis treatment removed almost all (up to 99%) of nucleosomes from treated blood and that untreated sepsis led to a high and continuously rising level of circulating NETs. 

Santersus also demonstrated that the plasmapheresis treatment successfully prevented this rise in NETs leading to a lower and stable level of circulating NETs, the company added. 

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Story by ProactiveInvestors