Viroforge Technologies

Living with COVID

Quantifying the adaptive immune response to COVID-19: Outpatient healthcare providers need better COVID-19 serology tools to support clinical guidance for the immunocompromised and other at-risk populations. For these individuals, it is not sufficient to rely on population-level guidance for the timing of vaccine boosters. Rather, they need routine, content-rich diagnostics to monitor their unique adaptive immune response to COVID-19, from both vaccination and infection, supporting evidence-based clinical advice for booster dosing.

The Coronaforge^TM test combines two state-of-the-art assays that run in parallel using the same droplet of blood: a multiplexed total antibody assay, and the first quantitative lab-on-a-chip neutralization assay. The result is a quantitative assessment of the origins and magnitude of the immune response to COVID-19, measured against the immunological background of exposure to all human coronaviruses and the four most recent influenza strains.

Outpatient Care

Addressing the needs of the current pandemic: The Coronaforge^TM assay provides a quantitative and uniquely detailed characterization of the adaptive immune response to COVID-19, related respiratory diseases and co-circulating pathogens. The results can be used to guide timely vaccine booster shots for immunocompromised and other at-risk individuals.

Diagnostics to help prevent the next pandemic: Researchers estimate that 1.3 million people die each year from bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics; in 2021 it caused more deaths than any infectious disease apart from COVID-19 and tuberculosis. Unfortunately, the problem is getting worse. The WHO warns that antimicrobial resistance will emerge as the largest global health threat of the 21st century, predicting that the number of deaths will reach ten million per year by mid-century. As more antibiotics become ineffective, and the risks of untreatable infections increase, common surgeries, transplants, and chemotherapy will become more dangerous.

The most important modifiable risk factor for antibiotic resistance is inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics. That is, using antibiotics to treat non-bacterial infections, as well as inappropriate antibiotic selection, duration, and dosing. According to the CDC, approximately half of antibiotic prescribing (in humans) might be inappropriate.

Viroforge’s Trident^TM Assay is a precision medicine diagnostic to support antibiotic stewardship at the point of care. By simultaneously quantifying the most significant clinical biomarkers of infection, this multiplexed assay guides the initiation and duration of antibiotic treatment, quickly delivering evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and disease management in outpatient settings.

Inpatient and Intensive Care

Convenient point-of-care diagnostics for antibiotic stewardship: According to the CDC, 30% of all antibiotics prescribed in U.S. acute care hospitals are either unnecessary or suboptimal. The misuse of antibiotics puts patients at risk, contributes to antibiotic resistance, and wastes resources. In the face of these challenges, there is a continuing need for better biomarker measurements to help guide the selection, initiation, and duration of antibiotic treatment.

Viroforge’s Trident^TM assay is the first quantitative, multiplexed biomarker diagnostic that can be quickly and conveniently performed at the point of care without sacrificing key performance indicators (measurement accuracy and precision, price per result, and simplicity of data tracking and reporting). The multiplexed assay simultaneously quantifies the most widely used and best studied biomarkers, alongside the most promising compounds from the latest clinical research.

Remote and Mobile Care

Endemic doesn’t mean harmless. Common colds are endemic, but so is Ebola, which has an average fatality rate of 50%. It also doesn’t mean they’re contained; the global incidence of dengue has grown dramatically, with about half the world’s population now at risk. The public health challenges of addressing a widespread disease, and the acute challenges of containing outbreaks of the world’s deadliest diseases, are magnified in under-resourced settings. Viroforge is working to address these challenges with simple to use, fast, accurate and information-rich point-of-care assays, with integrated data reporting.

• Diagnostic accuracy supported by simultaneous identification of co-circulating pathogens, especially those that cause similar symptoms.
• Excellent measurement utility, with simultaneous quantification of antibody cross-reactivity against different species of the virus.
• Improved specificity, and the identification and quantification of the origins of adaptive immunity (vaccination versus recovery), from the concurrent detection of antibody responses to multiple antigens from each viral species.

Filovirus Assay – Ebola and Marburg

There is a safe and effective, FDA-approved vaccine for use against Zaire ebolavirus, the more common of four types of ebolaviruses known to cause severe human illness and death. But for the unvaccinated, Ebola virus disease remains one of the world’s deadliest, and there is a continuing need for better diagnostics as well as tools for disease surveillance in resource limited settings.

The Filoforge^TM assay is a simple, low cost test for the serological detection of multiple antigens from the five filovirus species that cause Ebola virus disease or Marburg virus disease.

Flavivirus Assay: Dengue, Zika and Yellow Fever

Antibody cross-reactivity and antibody-dependent enhancement conspire to make the Flavivirus genus one of the more confounding. It means that the body’s memory of one strain of Flavivirus can make a related disease more dangerous; previous infection with the Zika virus may increase the risk for symptomatic and severe dengue, while previous infection with one of the four dengue serotypes makes infection with any of the remaining three more deadly. This also presents a challenge to vaccine manufacturers. For the only FDA approved dengue vaccine (Dengvaxia) to be both safe and effective, an individual must have been exposed to the dengue virus before receiving the vaccine. The dependence on preexposure to promote vaccine efficacy is an almost unprecedented paradigm.

The Flaviforge^TM test addresses several challenges:

• Dengue pre-vaccination screening: Test of dengue exposure history to determine appropriateness of vaccination.
• Yellow fever booster shots: Characterization of the adaptive immune response to Yellow fever to assess the need for vaccine booster prior to travel.
• Diagnostic for Zika, Yellow Fever, West Nile, tick-borne encephalitis and related diseases: Antibody test for current infection for patients displaying symptoms longer than five days.