COVID-19: Development of novel algorithm-driven digital platform for assessing the Leukocyte ImmunoTest(TM) as a clinical parameter in monitoring vulnerability to coronavirus

牛津MediStress正在开发一种先进的白细胞免疫测试（LIT）（tm），作为一种快速（10分钟）的手指刺入体外血液测试，以评估个人免疫系统的功能。在先前涉及各种癌症患者的研究中，我们已经证明了该技术的临床潜力。UCLH最近的FORECAST临床试验结果显示，70名前列腺癌患者的LIT评分与最终临床结果之间存在很强的相关性。最近，OMS受邀在伦敦一家研究型医院参与了一项针对医护人员和冠状病毒重症患者的COVID-19研究。在这项研究中，研究小组希望证明这项技术的潜力，为NHS一线医护人员提供免疫功能低下的预警指标，以确定谁感染冠状病毒的风险最大。最终，该技术可用于COVID-19治疗和临床研究的许多其他方面，包括为监测重症监护中的COVID-19患者提供新的有用临床参数，为评估免疫状态提供新的临床参数，用于开发新的COVID-19疫苗和疗法，以及在最初的大流行过去后评估创伤后应激障碍（导致免疫抑制）对医护人员的影响。在这个项目中，团队将开发一个新的数字平台来支持数据分析。该平台将根据一系列临床参数，包括我们开发的新临床参数（LIT），对风险/脆弱性进行个人评估。作为项目的一部分，我们将开发新的数学工具和新的智能手机应用程序。在项目扩展中，经过与临床专家的讨论，该团队将扩展其临床研究，使用LIT评估COVID-19重症患者的中性粒细胞功能，特别是将监测ICU患者，以确定LIT评分是否可以提供可能的疾病严重程度的新预后指标。该团队已经获得了伦理许可，可以在伯明翰进行这样的研究。该项目对公众的主要好处是开发了一种新的快速测试方法，用于评估个人免疫系统的强度和监测COVID-19重症患者。

Oxford MediStress is developing the advanced Leukocyte ImmunoTest (LIT)(tm) as a rapid (10-minute) fingerprick in vitro blood test to assess how well an individual's immune system is functioning. In previous studies involving patients with a variety of cancers, we have demonstrated the clinical potential of the technique. Results from the recent FORECAST clinical trial at UCLH showed strong correlation between the LIT score and eventual clinical outcome for 70 prostate cancer patients. Recently, OMS has been invited to participate in a COVID-19 study on health care workers and critically-ill coronavirus patients at a London research hospital. In that study the team hopes to demonstrate the potential for the technique for providing an early-warning indicator of poor immune function for frontline NHS healthcare workers in order to determine who is at greatest risk of contracting coronavirus. Eventually, the technique could be used in many other facets of COVID-19 treatment and clinical research, including providing a new and useful clinical parameter for monitoring COVID-19 patients in intensive care, providing a new clinical parameter for assessing immune status for use in developing new COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, and assessing impact of PTSD (which causes immunosuppression) on healthcare workers after the initial pandemic has passed.In this project the team will develop a novel digital platform to support data analysis. The platform will enable individual assessment of risk/vulnerability based on a number of clinical parameters including the new clinical parameter (LIT) which we have developed. We will develop new mathematical tools and a new smartphone app as part of the project.In the project extension, following discussions with clinical experts, the team will extend its clinical study to assess neutrophil function using LIT in patients severely ill with COVID-19, and in particular will monitor those in ICU, to determine whether LIT score can provide a new prognostic indication of likely disease severity. The team already has ethics approval for conducting such a study in Birmingham. The key benefit of this project for the general public is the development of a new rapid test for assessing the strength of an individual's immune system and for monitoring patients severely ill with COVID-19.