Immunovia AB announced that the company is expanding the applications area of IMMray, its proprietary antibody biomarker based technology platform, to autoimmune diseases.

“It is estimated that 5 million people suffer from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) worldwide, with 100,000 new cases reported every year. Due to the challenge of diagnosing SLE patients correctly, there is an immediate clinical need for a blood-based test such as IMMray SLE,” said Mats Grahn, CEO, Immunovia.

A new group of expert investigators was formed for a large autoimmunity project at the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University. The principal investigator is professor Christer Wingren, who developed the IMMray technology, together with Immunovia’s founder Prof Carl Borrebaeck. Over the last few years, they have been conducting autoimmunity-focused research on SLE. One of the most difficult to diagnose and monitor autoimmune diseases, SLE is also known as “the great imitator” because its symptoms are similar to rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, thyroid and, blood disorders, diabetes, etc.

The initial stages of the IMMray SLE programme are covered by a grant of 2 million SEK from Vinnova, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems.

“To our knowledge, there is no single serological and/or urinary test yet at hand to confirm or rule out SLE. IMMray technology, has been designed and developed to create a biological snapshot of an individual’s immune response by analysing serum proteins that change as a sign of disease. This enables highly specific and sensitive biomarker immunosignatures to be derived for diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of flares in autoimmune diseases,” said professor Christer Wingren, Department of Immunotechnology, Lund University.

“We are grateful for receiving funding from Vinnova for the initial stage of the programme and we are looking forward to the validation results and the subsequent introduction of the test into clinical practice,” said Mats Grahn, CEO, Immunovia.