Benzinga | Jul 14, 2020 06:02AM EDT

Volition Announces Clinical Trials Results For Its Novel COVID-19 Triage Test Had Been Submitted For PEer Review

AUSTIN, Texas, July 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- VolitionRx Limited (NYSE:VNRX) ("Volition"), a multi-national epigenetics company applying its Nu.Q(tm) Nucleosomics(tm) technology to develop simple, cost effective blood-based tests for cancer and other diseases, today announced that results from two proof of concept clinical studies using its Nu.Q(tm) assays have been submitted for peer review and will be available on BIORXIV.ORG shortly. "Circulating Nucleosomes as potential prognostic markers for COVID-19 disease severity" .

Commenting on the results, corresponding author Professor Stefan Holdenrieder, Director of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine, German Heart Center, Munich, Germany said, "We tested two independent cohorts of COVID-19 positive patients with quantitative nucleosome immunoassays and found that nucleosomes were highly elevated in plasma of severe COVID-19 patients relative to healthy control subjects and that both histone 3.1 variant and citrullinated nucleosomes increased with disease severity. Given that the highest levels of nucleosomes were found in patients requiring artificial ventilation or extracorporeal oxygenation, we believe that nucleosomes could serve as a guiding biomarker for disease severity in COVID-19 positive patients."

Cameron Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer of Volition commented, "Nu.QTM has shown correlation with more severe COVID-19 cases implying strong prognostic potential, and we are now focused on the completion of larger longitudinal studies that would be needed to support a potential COVID-19 product launch. If we continue to see positive results in these longitudinal studies, we aim to have a CE-marked product available on multiple platforms in 2020 and will look to launch a low-cost product that could be used in any laboratory worldwide as soon as possible thereafter."



The studies, conducted at University Hospital Liege, Belgium and the German Heart Center in Munich, Germany aimed to confirm whether circulating nucleosomes could serve as a potential prognostic marker for COVID-19 disease severity. Early identification and triaging of patients tested positive for COVID-19 who are the most likely to deteriorate and need critical care would enable both improved outcomes for patients and a more efficient use of critical care resources for healthcare providers. Volition believes that this is still very much an unmet need worldwide in fighting the impact of the pandemic.

Volition's goal is to develop a prognostic test with nucleosomes as a biomarker to provide early insight into which COVID-19 positive patients require higher levels of monitoring including hospitalization and critical care resources, versus those who are less likely to develop serious symptoms.

"Whilst cancer remains our core disease focus, these results demonstrate the versatility of the Nu.Q(tm) platform and the range of applications for which these products can be leveraged to help increase diagnostic power. I am hopeful that our Nu.Q(tm) epigenetic toolbox may have potential to help doctors and patients in the COVID-19 pandemic" commented Dr. Jake Micallef, Chief Scientific Officer of Volition. "I believe it may also be helpful in other respiratory viral outbreaks including influenza and pneumonia, particularly given that current COVID tests are specific to strain or disease, whereas Nu.Q(tm) is not. I am also pleased that the Nu.Q(tm) test kits used by the teams in Liege and Munich performed extremely well on their own laboratory equipment. This bodes well for use of the kit in any future laboratory setting."

For further details please contact mediarelations@volition.com