Autoimmune neurobiology company Moleculera Labs Inc, Oklahoma City, Okla, has received notice that the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted an expansion of the intellectual property protections covering the company’s Cunningham panel.
Specifically, the office permitted the addition of human serotonin receptors 5HT2A and 5HT2C to the covered molecular targets, broadening the panel’s use to a wider range of neuropsychiatric targets and conditions with an underlying autoimmune origin.
The Cunningham panel is a set of tests aimed at assisting clinicians in the diagnosis of pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) and pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with Streptococci infection (PANDAS). Both conditions are associated with motor tics, obsessive compulsive disorder, and autism spectrum disorders that researchers believe are caused by an autoimmune response triggered by common infections.
A technology spin-out from the University of Oklahoma, Moleculara Labs is certified under the requirements of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 and accredited by the College of American Pathologists. The company’s facility in Oklahoma City performs the Cunningham panel for physicians and clinicians throughout the United States and globally.
Craig Shimasaki, Moleculera Labs.
“The Cunningham panel can help identify the level of autoimmune antibodies associated with neuropsychiatric disorders and the capability they have to stimulate and trigger neurologic behavior,” notes Craig Shimasaki, PhD, president and CEO of Moleculera Labs. “The panel was originally developed from research at the University of Oklahoma as an aid for physicians in diagnosing PANS and PANDAS, and it is used today for this purpose by a growing number of clinicians around the world.
“We are very pleased to have our intellectual property protection extended to these additional molecular targets, which we believe could increase the Cunningham panel’s predictive treatment value in a number of additional psychotropic disorders, as well as aid in drug discovery and development,” adds Shimasaki.
Research has increasingly pointed to a relationship between infection-triggered inflammatory attacks on the brain and neuropsychiatric conditions. Results of the Cunningham panel assist physicians in determining the likelihood that a patient’s neuropsychiatric symptoms are due to an infection-triggered autoimmune response, rather than a primary psychiatric disorder.
For further information, visit Moleculera Labs.
