The company hopes that these biomarkers can be developed into a test that will allow early diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, diagnosis of which is currently conducted through extensive clinical observation and testing. The mean time to positive diagnosis is 13 months. Knopp expects that the availability of its diagnostic tool for ALS would permit much earlier diagnosis, enabling earlier intervention in positive cases.
The markers, discovered using SELDI-based mess spectrometry, have demonstrated a high degree of sensitivity and specificity as an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tool for ALS in studies whose controls included patients presenting with neurological disorders other than ALS.
The markers were discovered by Dr Robert Bowser, a co-founder and paid consultant of Knopp NeuroSciences, and associate professor of neuropathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.