PEPperPRINT and PROGEN develop new test for early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis
We are pleased to announce the development of a new biomarker test for early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in cooperation with PROGEN Biotechnik GmbH. During the next three years, the project will be funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with 600,000 €.
So far, all available serological tests for the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis reach sensitivities of only ~70%, leaving 30% of all patients undiagnosed. This often causes a substantial delay of an effective medical treatment of seronegative patients. PEPperPRINT and PROGEN now start the development of an innovative serological test based on a highly sensitive and RA-specific biomarker combination that also enables the monitoring of complex autoantibody profiles for patient stratification.
The project is based on the new SeroRA® library for the identification of RA-specific IgG and IgA autoantibody profiles. SeroRA® is the world’s most powerful antigen library for rheumatoid arthritis and exhibits an unrivalled size with more than 120,000 linear and cyclic constrained peptides of human and pathogen origin. For the very first time, the library not only covers several tens of thousands of native peptides, but also the corresponding citrullinated and homocitrullined variants.
PROGEN will finally transfer validated biomarker candidates in a diagnostic standard format and evaluate the test according to ISO 13485. PEPperPRINT and PROGEN aim to close the anti-CCP, anti-MCV and RF seronegative gap, and will further exploit the SeroRA® library for the development of new CDx tests.
