Lab21 Announces Licence Agreement with Ark Therapeutics for Predictive Coronary Heart Disease Diagnostic

Lab 21, a leading provider of health and environmental diagnostics, is delighted to announce that it has entered into an exclusive license with Ark Therapeutics of a diagnostic test to measure autoantibodies to oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL), which is a predictive risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease (CHD).

The oxLDL test can identify those individuals at the greatest risk of developing CHD, allowing for early preventative action. In addition, the diagnostic is expected to radically alter the clinical diagnosis of heart attacks in the emergency room setting.

Ox-LDL is released from atherosclerotic plaque in increasing amounts as the plaque becomes more unstable, and thus with the increasing likelihood that an area of it will break away from the surface of the blood vessel and obstruct either the coronary artery (causing a heart attack) or a cerebral vessel (causing a stroke). Because oxLDL has a very short half life within the blood, measuring it accurately is difficult. However, the body rapidly produces auto-antibodies and these can be measured by the appropriate antigens.

Dr Berwyn Clarke, CSO of Lab21, commented: “Heart attacks due to atherosclerosis are the greatest cause of mortality in the developing world and we are very pleased to licence this diagnostic to such a globally important health issue. We hope this test will enable the more accurate definition of certain forms of cardiac disease helping reduce the incidence of heart attacks and providing obvious economic benefit to healthcare providers worldwide.”

The oxLDL antibody assay is CE marked and is an ELISA test based upon a novel diagnostic approach with intellectual property surrounding the peptide antigens used. It will be manufactured by Newmarket Laboratories which is part of the Lab21 group of companies.

Dr Christian Goodwin, Head of Immunodiagnostics at Newmarket Laboratories, explains: “The determination of antibodies to oxLDL as opposed to the measurement of oxLDL directly is important since oxLDL has a short half life and is unstable; antibody determination is a much more reliable technique to determine an individual’s exposure and risk profile to this atherogenic factor. Early clinical studies have already shown that the test performs favourably against all current gold standard diagnostic markers.”