Oxford company for Covid-19 study to identify most at risk

Oxford University spin-out Oxford BioDynamics has been selected to take part in the Scottish Government funded trial.

It will seek to identify patients at risk of severe disease caused by significant immune complications from the virus, as well as predicting if a patient is likely to respond to treatment with the anti-viral drug favipiravir.

The virus can be fatal due to overreaction of the immune system, with the body going into overdrive and triggering excessive release of key regulators of inflammation, cytokines, leading to tissue damage.

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The trial is being run in collaboration with Glasgow University and is believed to be the first clinical study to look at epigenetic biomarkers of Covid-19 patients.

Oxford BioDynamics will be providing its EpiSwitch technology for the study – this technology can rapidly identify epigenetic biomarkers in a patient’s blood and by analysing these biomarkers, researchers believe they will be able to identify those individuals that will progress to a severe form of Covid-19, and those that will respond to anti-viral therapy.

Jon Burrows, chief executive of Oxford BioDynamics, said: “In susceptible individuals coronavirus can be devastating, attacking not only the lungs but heart, kidneys, blood vessels, GI tract and liver.

"It is imperative that we learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. We are confident that the EpiSwitchTM platform will be of great advantage in this endeavour.”