How immune repertoire sequencing is addressing unmet needs in multiple sclerosis drug development
Existing therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) are primarily directed toward the systemic reduction of immune activation against the neural tissue using anti-inflammatory and B-cell depleting agents, as well as restricting proliferation, migration, or replication of lymphocytes. These therapies are largely disease-modifying agents, and there remains a significant unmet clinical need for disease-arresting or curative therapies.
Major hurdles to patients and clinicians include the lack of clear in-vitro diagnostics for early detection, staging, or prediction of disease severity and progression—and there are no accurate blood-based biomarkers for evaluating drugs in clinical trials. Addressing these areas of unmet needs in treatment and diagnostic/biomarker development will require measuring and understanding subsets of lymphocytes relevant to disease severity, progression, and response to therapy.
Learn how Adaptive’s rapid and minimally invasive T-cell receptor (TCR) sequencing and antigen-agnostic analytical platform can be leveraged to advance specific and sensitive diagnostics, as well as more sophisticated therapeutics. This platform can assist researchers and developers who are:
- Assessing patients’ T-cell responses using Adaptive’s MS-specific TCR signatures, including responses associated with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) risk alleles
- Monitoring disease-specific T-cell responses through disease progression, including pre-therapy, post-therapy, and longitudinally
- Evaluating and establishing clinical trial endpoints or biomarkers such as:
- Early detection and differential diagnosis
- Disease staging
- Disease progression or severity
- Patient selection and stratification
- Understanding drug mechanism of action
- Drug efficacy and safety and monitoring
- Understand responders and non-responders
