Immundnz publishes article on human immune assay in peer reviewed journal

Immundnz Ltd. has published the results of a study to assess the susceptibility of patients to cytokine

storm in COVID-19 in Current Research in Immunology. The assay may also find application in other

infectious diseases, vaccine and drug development and cell therapies. The link to the article can be

found here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crimmu.2022.11.001.

Cytokine storm is a severe to fatal condition caused by infectious pathogens or drug compounds

mediated by immune response, and which was recently also seen in COVID-19 patients. There has

been a lack of safe and translational experimental models to predict a tolerance or progression into

cytokine storm in asymptomatic patients. The aim of our research was to develop a safe non-

interventional in vitro human assay that can be instrumental in assessing this. The developed assay is

predictive of cytokine release-associated risk in individuals who may be susceptible to cytokine storm,

and can be challenged by mutated viral segments or peptides or drug compounds like CAR-T.

Immundnz is an Alderley Park based CRO, specialised in in vitro immunology research with customised

services and in-depth knowledge in immune mechanisms and protein biology to provide clients with

solutions to make better decisions in drug discovery and at the non-clinical and pre-clinical stage.

Dr Masih Alam, Company Director at Immundnz, said: “Cytokine storm is associated with COVID-19

severity and is also a crucial cause of death from COVID-19. Cytokine release assay is widely applied in

preclinical drug research but, if modified, we had the idea that it may also have the potential to assess

the risk of viral antigens to trigger excessive levels of cytokine release in vivo. In that way it can be

predicted whether a patient will develop a cytokine storm or not. The assay we developed at

Immundnz can become an important tool in predicting, planning and preparing for hospital intensive

care units that are needed during the course of a pandemic. But importantly it can also be used in

other fields with known risks for developing cytokine storm, like patients undergoing cell therapies

such as CAR-T.”