AMPEL BioSolutions has announced that its genetic precision medicine test for lupus patients could predict heart disease and provide decision support for prophylactic therapies. Shared genes that predispose both to lupus and cardiovascular disease are pinpointed in a report they published in Cell Reports Medicine. AMPEL’s approach characterizes inherited genetic markers that drive already druggable pathways. The company says its CardioGENE lab test is now ready for development for practical use as a decision support biomarker test.
“CardioGENE marks a diversification of AMPEL’s portfolio into genetic testing, and we are extremely excited to share our results,” said Amrie Grammer, AMPEL Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer.
By identifying the DNA-driven pathways, CardioGENE could allow health care professionals to prevent serious cardiovascular events with prophylactic targeted treatment. The company says this the first time cardiovascular genetic risk factors that result in strokes and heart attacks have been identified in immune and inflammatory system genes even when a patient does not smoke, have elevated cholesterol, or high blood pressure. Importantly, FDA-approved drugs that target inflammatory cytokines such as IL6 as well as immune cells are candidates for prophylactic therapy.
According to a recent report: “SLE patients with lupus nephritis display significantly increased risk of myocardial infarction and CVD mortality than SLE patients without lupus nephritis.”
This new publication from AMPEL marks the company’s expansion into genetic testing as a second platform technology in addition to the work the company already conducts in the field of RNA analytics and machine learning.
AMPEL’s technology is a cloud-based platform that hosts proprietary DNA/RNA analytic tools and machine learning algorithms covered by 25+ filed/pending patents and 85+ peer-reviewed publications. Potential disease areas for the company include systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, scleroderma, atopic dermatitis, lupus nephritis, fibromyalgia, cardiovascular, Sjogren’s Syndrome, wellness, lung Cancer, and SARS-Cov2. The company says its platform covers over 95% of all known genes.
“Accelerated and prevalent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in patients with Lupus is not explained by traditional risk factors and has been attributed by my research group as well as other groups to relate to undefined variables associated with the emergence of Lupus,” said Jane Salmon Co-Director Mary Kirkland Ctr for Lupus Research, Collette Kean Research Chair and Professor of Medicine at HSS and Cornell Weill.
“This research not only contributes to our understanding of the genetic basis of the increased frequency of cardiovascular events in patients living with lupus, but also provides practical information on new molecular pathways contributing to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” said Peter Lipsky, AMPEL Co-Founder, CEO and Chief Medical Officer. “We believe this work will usher in new approaches to ameliorate one of the leading causes of death in lupus patients.”
“By leveraging the growing knowledge of lupus and cardiovascular disease genetics, this novel Mendelian randomization study provides new insights into the biological pathways and causal relationship between these two intertwined diseases.” said Carl Langefeld, Professor of Biostatistics and Data Science, Wake Forest School of Medicine.
