Pharmasan Labs Wins Grant for Novel Immune Tolerance Test (ITT)-Cytokine Platform Press Release
Pharmasan Labs, Inc. Wins Grant for Novel Immune Tolerance Test (ITT)-Cytokine Platform
Osceola, WI - November 3, 2010 � Pharmasan Labs, Inc. and NeuroScience, Inc. announce that Pharmasan Labs is the recipient of a $244,479 grant under the highly competitive Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (�QDTP�) Program established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The grant was awarded for the company�s novel immune testing platform that aims to diagnose clinically relevant immune responses across a spectrum of acute and chronic conditions, thereby facilitating more targeted therapeutic interventions.
The ITT-Cytokine platform can help identify the root cause of chronic conditions, allowing practitioners to provide appropriate therapeutic interventions. As an example, Pharmasan Labs, Inc., in collaboration with NeuroScience, Inc., currently offers MY Lyme Immune I.D.TM, which assesses whether an individual has had an immune response to the Lyme disease bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and whether the infection is currently active. �While Lyme disease, food sensitivity, and other conditions are often diagnosed using antibody-based methodologies, these traditional detection methods can sometimes yield false-negative results,� remarked Mieke Kellermann, President of Pharmasan Labs, Inc. �By assaying for the presence of antigen-specific T cells and elevated cytokine production in response to specific antigens, we are identifying the key drivers of inflammation underlying clinical pathology and symptoms. Therefore, the ITT-Cytokine platform offers a superior diagnostic approach to antibody-based testing.�
In the ITT-Cytokine platform, an individual�s white blood cells are isolated and cultured in the presence of individual antigens, such as proteins from bacteria or food. If the individual�s white blood cells contain T cells (a type of white blood cell) that respond to that antigen, they become activated, leading to both an increase in number as well as heightened production of cytokines (soluble messengers of inflammation).
The QDTP Program funds research that shows significant potential to produce new cost-saving therapies, create U.S. jobs, and increase U.S. competitiveness. The Department of Health and Human Services evaluated each project for its potential to produce new therapies, reduce long-term health care costs, or cure cancer within 30 years.
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Not clear on what they will do with this grant. Identify the profile of each chronic disease? Wondering if there is any track record so far on chronic lyme cases. Afraid to get my hopes up again, there have been so many testing claims in the past that didn't pan out, or was claimed to be good but found very few cases.
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
lou,
I am also skeptical of this new test. Personally I think that a certain subset of lyme patients (and especially those with arthritic lyme) may benefit.
But for patients with mostly neuro lyme and especially those like hubby who have next to zero lyme antibodies -- I am not so sure that they elicit a strong cytokine response either. To me it doesn't make sense that the t cells would recognize the antigen of the pathogen in a petri dish if the body is not actively producing antibodies to the pathogen?????
Wish I had a couple of thousand dollars to get hubby tested by this lab, the SpiroStat lab and Galaxy lab -- but that probably won't happen in this lifetime.
Bea Seibert
P.S. Would love to see a clinical study from this lab of several hundred tickborne patients and see if there were differences between predominately neuro patients and arthritic patients and also what percent of patients with zero bands on Western Blots have a positive cytokine response compared to those who were CDC posiitve.
Posted by seekhelp (Member # 15067) on :
Bea, is there even a remote chance your husband is not dealing with tick-borne illnesses for real and maybe another culprit since his Ab response is so poor?
Posted by sk8ter (Member # 8671) on :
They are doing the study as we speak and have been for the past year. Again this is not about antibodies......it is a specific T-cell response to only the Lyme pathogen. They are now using this grant to use their test for other pathogens. Obviously the Dept of Health and Human services sees potential in this testing..thus the grant to further their studies. This is a unique test among all that are out there. This is the way of the future away from antibody testing.
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
Seek,
For years hubby wondered the same thing -- but the multiple bloodslides showing babesia or another bloodborne parasite pretty much convinced him. And he does have one positive PCR for Lyme from years ago. And then there is the positive SPECT scan and the lesions that show on MRI's. But for hubby the real proof is his dramatic improvement on certain specific antibiotic protocols.
We are awaiting results of a new Clongen bloodslide and hopefully will get insurance approval to repeat the SPECT scan in January. The most recent neurologist agreed that hubby's symptoms fit a classic tickborne illness and did not fit the pattern of any neurological disease.
I personally think hubby most likely has some viral issues as well as lyme, babesia and bartonella or mycoplasma. That is one area that we may pursue additional treatment for at some point.
This summer hubby found ticks on his socks at least 3 or 4 times. He has always been a mosquito magnet -- as a former runner he has a high metabolic rate and must produce lots of carbon dioxide or something else which attracts insects.
Hubby has been tested for many many things over the last 10 years. Early in his illness he had some immune tests done -- at that time he had very few helper t cells. His suppressor t cells were also low. I don't remember him being tested for killer cells at that time.
But obviously there are underlying immune issues which seem to lean towards immune suppression. I personally think this is at least partly due to bartonella or mycoplasma. His CD 57 has improved slightly (from 44 to 70) in the last year after aggressive bart treatment.
Other than more extensive testing for viruses I don't know what else hubby could be tested for -- and viruses would not explain his improvements on antibiotics and malaria meds.