Developed at the University of Reading, the assay evaluates individual platelet reactivity from a single tube of blood, with a 400-patient clinical trial underway.
A newly developed blood test could help protect patients from suffering repeat heart attacks or strokes by guiding personalized antiplatelet therapy, according to an announcement from the University of Reading.
The assay, named TRIPLEcheck, is designed to help clinicians make targeted prescribing decisions by evaluating how an individual’s platelets respond to medication, the university reported. Antiplatelet therapies are routinely administered following cardiovascular events to prevent platelets from aggregating and obstructing blood vessels. However, these medications are ineffective in certain patient subsets and can induce dangerous bleeding complications in others.
“For decades, every patient has been given the same drugs at the same strength, even though scientists know that patients’ platelets respond differently to medication from person to person. Our inability to give the right medication to the right patient is part of why second heart attacks and strokes keep happening,” says Jon Gibbins, professor at the University of Reading who led the development, in a release.
He adds in a release, “TRIPLEcheck lets us measure each patient’s risk before we choose their treatment, making medicines safer and more effective. Our trial could improve the treatment of heart attacks and strokes worldwide, preventing hundreds of thousands of deaths and saving the NHS millions of pounds every year.”
Optimizing Therapy and Lab Integration
According to the university, the test indicates to clinicians when platelets are prone to continued aggregation—warranting treatment escalation—or when therapy should be stepped down because the danger of bleeding is heightened.
For clinical laboratory workflows, the assay presents minimal operational burden. TRIPLEcheck requires only a single small tube of blood, which can be drawn alongside a patient’s standard admission laboratory workup upon hospital arrival, according to the release.
Cardiovascular disease remains a primary driver of global mortality, accounting for approximately 20 million deaths each year worldwide and affecting more than 500 million individuals, the university stated. In the UK alone, heart and circulatory conditions claim roughly 170,000 lives annually, representing more than 25% of all national deaths. Furthermore, the UK records an estimated 200,000 heart attacks and strokes each year, occurring at a rate of approximately one event every 2.5 minutes. While anti-clotting medications contributed to a three-quarters decrease in UK cardiovascular mortality over the past 60 years, the university noted that clinical gains have plateaued.
Validation and Clinical Trial Pipeline
TRIPLEcheck was developed using analytical data gathered from approximately 650 healthy volunteers and subsequently evaluated in a cohort of 350 patients diagnosed with heart disease, according to the development team.
To support clinical implementation, a clinical trial funded by the British Heart Foundation has commenced to enroll 400 heart attack patients and assess the diagnostic platform’s utility in routine care pathways.
Commercialization and hospital deployment efforts are being managed by HaemAnalytica, a University of Reading spin-out venture co-founded by Gibbins and associate professor Chris Jones. The spin-out company aims to introduce the TRIPLEcheck platform into hospital laboratory environments within the next five years, according to the announcement.
ID 161325171 | Blood © Oksana Ryzhinskaya | Dreamstime.com
