NEW YORK – Metabolon and the Scottish Early Rheumatoid Arthritis (SERA) study on Wednesday announced a partnership to identify metabolomic biomarkers for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk, disease progression, and treatment response.
The two parties will combine Morrisville, North Carolina-based Metabolon's metabolomics platform with SERA's well-characterized cohort of RA patients to study the molecular mechanisms of RA development and progression.
Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The study will look at samples collected from 1,073 patients across Scotland who were newly diagnosed with RA or undifferentiated arthritis between March 2011 and April 2015. Clinical data including therapeutics used and disease activity were collected along with the samples.
According to Metabolon and SERA, as of 2019 there were roughly 18 million cases of RA worldwide, with more than half of affected individuals aged 55 or older. Around 60 percent of cases are thought to have an underlying genetic basis, but the disease is hypothesized to start with an environmental trigger of some kind. The hope is that metabolomics can help identify these genetic and environmental components.
SERA is a consortium made up of the universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, the NHS Scotland, Pfizer, and the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office.
"Our original ambition in establishing the SERA cohort was to facilitate a deeper understanding of the causes of rheumatoid arthritis and how affected individuals progress in their disease," Iain McInnes, vice principal and head of college of the University of Glasgow, said in a statement. "This, in turn, helps us identify better patient treatments and make wiser treatment choices. Our new collaboration with Metabolon is an exciting step forward in the search for improved predictive therapies for patients."
"Rheumatoid arthritis is an extremely diverse disorder characterized by a wide range of disease severity, phenotypes, and treatment responses," Karl Bradshaw, chief business officer at Metabolon, said in a statement. "Currently, there is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, but there are drugs available that can slow disease progression. Treatments are often tailored through trial and error because there's no standard way to group patients for specific treatments."