Topic: SEROCHIP- NEW TEST FOR LYME & TICK BORNE DISEASES
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
SEROCHIP- NEW TEST FOR LYME & TICK BORNE DISEASES
QUOTE- "The TBD-Serochip was designed to discriminate antibody responses to 8 major tick-borne pathogens present in the United States, including Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti, Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia miyamotoi, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Rickettsia rickettsii, Heartland virus and Powassan virus."
posted
I would to see it distributed on a wide scale, to include any and everyone who has had positives from Idgenix on any of the indicator numbers for LD.
How is it administered? Is it a specific blood test request? Are they doing any kind of testing? I wish that Pubmed would have given more info than just a tantalizing blurp.
-------------------- I still have a good time wherever I go! Posts: 138 | From Lost Wages | Registered: Oct 2016
| IP: Logged |
posted
I am amazed that they say it's the first test of its kind. Leona Gilbert has set up a multiplex array called Tickplex at Arminlabs in Germany.
There's "Tickplex" just for Borrelia, then "Tickplex Plus" for multiple organisms including Babesia, Bartonella etc, - and she is nearly completing validation of "Tickplex Premium" for umpteen TBDs plus the opportunistic infections.
Andromeda x
Posts: 180 | From UK | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
This is from the text of a pdf of an interview with Leona Gilbert:
I learned from Leona that there are antibodies in the blood of Lyme patients which no one has looked for until now, because they did not know the properties of the antigens on the cell membrane of the round bodies which evoke those antibodies.. It makes sense to look for the antibodies to these antigens, because some patients will have more round bodies in their blood than spirochaetes.
But never before has anyone investigated the proteins on the surface of the round bodies.
In fact, each Borrelia round body has its own different surface proteins when compared with the spirochaete. These surface proteins on the round bodies will act as antigens which will cause a specific reaction from our immune system that is different from the antigen-evoked reactions of a spirochaete.
Leona told me that she has had enquiries about her tests from the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) and the NIH (National Institutes of Health) in America, as well as the Department of Health in Finland. I asked her how she had made her proteins for the kits but she said they are a bit of a trade secret, and that's when she mentioned that there are 4 patents pending associated with the methodology. Two of her peer-reviewed research publications (1, 2) describe how she discovered this exceptionally useful information about the round bodies, and how she devised the tests.
Her basic Tickplex tests for Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia afzelii, and Borrelia garinii, including the persistent forms of all three. Also, it can identify the acute antibody types called the IgM and the older antibodies which stay in the blood for longer (the IgG antibodies).
The Tickplex Plus test is ideal for people who suspect other pathogens are causing their illness; perhaps because they have failed courses of treatment for Lyme disease or their symptoms point to a complex infection. The additional pathogens tested for include Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia and Rickettsia. Also, the opportunist infections such as Coxsackie virus, EBV, Human Parvovirus B19, Mycoplasma fermentans and Mycoplasma pneumoniae are covered. These two tests ,Tickplex and Tickplex Plus, are both validated with CE and are IVD marked and accredited for medical devices standard ISO 13485:2016.
Leona explained the validation of third test, the Tickplex Premium test, is ongoing and should be available next spring. It is well on its way to validation, but she explained that because it covers so many more pathogens, and its ability to detect each pathogen has to be assessed separately, the validation process is taking longer than the Basic and Plus tests. The Tickplex Premium will include many more pathogens in addition to the ones on the Tickplex Plus and these will include Tick-borne Encephalitis Virus (TBE), Brucella, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Cytomegalovirus and Chlamydia trachomatis and others.
In the validation of Tickplex technology a double-blinded study, supported by the Finnish government, and involving 1,100 patients and 200 healthy controls , was carried out to see how well the Tickplex Plus test performed. The sensitivity was 95% and the specificity 98%. It was by far the best study result the FSI has seen regarding infectious diseases caused by ticks (3.)
The tests will be good value for money, because even the basic test will be looking for far more antibodies than the ones used by government or National Health Service labs. The cost of the Tickplex Plus for instance is about £450 – but imagine how much it would cost to pay for separate tests for 10 different species of bacteria, plus the 3 species of Borrelia. Given that ticks are carrying multiple infections, it makes sense to test for several pathogens in each patient at one time.
She explained that the assessments of positive and negative results are done by a machine, which measures the optical density of each antibody that shows up as a circular spot. If a spot on the test plate has a high optical density, it will indicate a high level of infection – so all the Tickplex tests are not only qualitative, but also quantitative.
Armin Schwarzbach is already carrying out the Tickplex series of tests at his Arminlabs, so I then turned to him, to ask if the costs to the patient could ever be reduced? He said that in Germany, there are strict rules about not going below a threshold in the pricing of medical tests. The costs of paying well-trained scientists and technicians, and maintaining the highest levels of laboratory standards, are very high, and the German authorities are keen to keep up these standards.
For example, Arminlabs were accredited in the summer of 2017, to the highest level possible internationally under the Dakks German standards board – and this cost Arminlabs EUR 50,000 to pay the fees of the many different experts who had to visit the labs to inspect them. The full accreditation is called DIN EN ISO 15189. It means that every aspect of the labs and every procedure done there,are recognised as being of the highest possible quality.
Best wishes, Andromeda.
Posts: 180 | From UK | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
TX Lyme Mom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3162
posted
quote:Originally posted by TrekCoord: I wish that Pubmed would have given more info than just a tantalizing blurp.
This is an "open access" article, meaning that it is FREE. Just click on the link at PubMed, located in the upper right hand corner, which will take you directly to the publisher's website.
I knew this would be a good test just as soon as I saw Brian Fallon's name listed as one of the co-authors. Brian Fallon is the guy from Columbia University who has done so much research into neuro-Lyme with brain scans, etc.
Posts: 4563 | From TX | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Marques's name is on there as well. So too is Lipkin's.
Afterall is said and done, this is another indirect test, or rather a package of indirect tests. They look for antibodies.
I don't seem to be able to find a test for bartonella in this package.
Where I come from, one has to first look for the three B's - borrelia, babesia and bartonella. How can a package of tickborne disease tests exclude bartonella?
I think the convenience factor is real, and it may help detect exposure where some clinicians might never have thought to look. This is a big plus.
But it does not appear to be direct testing, and this is what we sorely need, imo.
Posts: 228 | From Unitied States | Registered: Jul 2015
| IP: Logged |
Ann-Ohio
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 44364
posted
The one available in Europe described by Andromeda above, and way ahead of the one developed in the US, DOES test for Bartonella.
The TICKPLEX® PLUS test provides a quantitative and qualitative in vitro assay for human IgM and IgG antibodies against multiple microbial antigens in human serum or plasma.
The kit tests for Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia burgdorferi, and Borrelia garinii infections and the tests include persistent antigens of the different Borrelia species.
and opportunistic infections (Coxsackievirus, Epstein-Barr virus, Human parvovirus B19, Mycoplasma fermentans and Mycoplasma pneumoniae) associated with tick-borne diseases.
This kit is intended to aid in diagnosis of tick-borne pathogen infections.
The test kit is for professional use only in clinical laboratory environment and it is not to be used for self-testing.
-------------------- Ann-OH Posts: 1590 | From Ohio | Registered: Aug 2014
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic