AndyPR
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Another of his group’s specialities, however, is the development of immunosignatures. An immunosignature uses an array of chemical compounds called peptides to give information about the antibodies present in an individual’s blood.
Prof. Patrick acquired some samples from the Norwegian team with which to develop an immunosignature capable of distinguishing ME/CFS patients likely to respond to rituximab treatment from those who will not. This issue is important because rituximab is associated with potentially serious side-effects and requires clinical monitoring, and it is also an expensive drug.
The preliminary results were promising (200 peptides differentiated responders from non-responders 92% of the time), so ME Research UK has awarded Prof. Patrick a grant to see if the results can be confirmed in a blinded study using a larger number of samples from all 152 patients taking part in the Norwegian randomized trial.
If the immunosignature pattern for the clinical response to rituximab is found to be sufficiently sensitive and specific, it may represent a useful biomarker for ME/CFS patients’ responses, helping to predict those who will and those who will not benefit from rituximab treatment.
http://www.meresearch.org.uk/our-research/ongoing-studies/immunosignature-for-rituximab/