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Quest Diagnostics Licenses Technology Underlying SensiTrop™ HIV Co-Receptor Tropism Test from Pathway Diagnostics
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Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has announced that it has entered into a non- exclusive license agreement for the heteroduplex tracking technology underlying Pathway Diagnostics' SensiTrop™ HIV co-receptor tropism test. Tropism refers to the way a virus targets host cells.
A molecular-based assay for HIV co-receptor tropism will help physicians personalize therapy for HIV patients. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"Pathway Diagnostics' heteroduplex tracking technology is an important new advance that highlights the growing importance of diagnostics to personalized medicine," said Joyce G. Schwartz, M.D., vice president and chief laboratory officer.
"HIV co-receptor tropism tests can help physicians identify which patients, of the estimated 500,000 people in the U.S. being treated for HIV infection, will benefit from entry inhibitor drugs, the latest development in life-enhancing anti-retroviral therapies."
Pathway Diagnostics' SensiTrop technology is designed to enable physicians to identify the HIV co-receptor tropism status of a patient infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV co-receptor tropism refers to the preference of strains of HIV to bind, activate and infect cells, promoting disease progression, according to the type of co-receptor, specifically CXCR4 (X4) and CCR5 (R5), on the surface of the cell. Entry inhibitor anti-retroviral drugs, such as Pfizer's Selzentry™ therapy, which is the first in its class to be FDA approved, block the CCR5 co-receptor to inhibit disease progression.
