PrecisionLife’s AI⁢ Revolutionizes⁢ Long COVID and ME/CFS Treatment

March 15th marked International Long ‌COVID Awareness Day. This condition affects ⁤at least 65 million people⁤ and is increasing annually,creating a‌ healthcare burden⁣ exceeding $1 trillion globally.

Long COVID shares commonalities with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), a chronic illness characterized by fatigue that worsens with activity. Both conditions are tough to diagnose and treat due to varied symptoms and ‌affected organs.

Despite their​ impact, there are no tools ⁣to accurately diagnose patients and no ​drugs that treat the underlying causes of the ⁤diseases. This has lead to misunderstanding ⁢and denial of the diseases, ‌which​ further harms sufferers.

The UK precision ‍medicine company PrecisionLife leverages‌ AI and combinatorial analytics to find deeper genetic associations than traditional ⁣analysis methods. This explains ‌more‌ about how‌ complex ‌diseases⁣ manifest in patients and uncovers hidden patterns in complex ​patient data, enabling breakthroughs in diagnostics, drug discovery, and precision medicine.

PrecisionLife⁣ co-founder and CEO Steve Gardner shared the company’s insights and ‍their success in ⁢bringing new insights to aid the diagnosis and treatment ‍of long COVID and other complex⁣ chronic diseases at the Hevolution global healthspan ⁤summit in Riyadh.

Transforming Disease Understanding Through Advanced⁤ Data Analytics

PrecisionLife’s AI-driven approach identifies combinations of⁤ genetic and non-genetic factors‌ that drive disease in different patient subgroups,going beyond traditional genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

Gardner⁣ explains ⁣the technological⁢ foundation of the company:

Technologically, we reimagine how you analyze data, and‍ this is really the genesis of the company—bringing two sets of technology together. ⁤One that I had developed over the last 20 ⁣years ‍and another ⁤that ⁤my co-founder, a mathematician​ and computer scientist, ⁣had been developing for even longer—actually 30 years.

We realised that if we​ put those two​ things⁣ together, we would actually have a way of dealing with these hyper-complex, big patient datasets with all of the genomic facts, all the multi-omics, proteomics, epigenetics, and everything ⁣else‌ like⁣ that, and correlating ‍it with things like longitudinal electronic medical records (EMR) or electronic health records (EHR) and epidemiological and environmental information.

Metrodora Institute⁤ partnership

PrecisionLife is partnering​ with the ⁤Metrodora‍ Institute ‍to bring researchers, doctors, and patients together ⁤to rapidly improve diagnostics, ⁤treatments, and outcomes in complex conditions ‌like ME/CFS and long COVID.

PrecisionLife is running a series⁣ of clinical studies on 1,000 patients – 500 with ME and ⁤500​ with long COVID.

“The speed and precision of our progress in these trials is remarkable,” saeid Gardner.

We identified and published the frist-ever replicated genetic associations⁤ in both ME/CFS and Long COVID.

Gardner​ detailed:

We have started returning results to Metrodora patients ​based ⁣on the specific disease ​risk signatures a​ patient has and the symptoms they are most ⁤likely to experience.

Patients come to us, and they say, this is brilliant. You know, ​it’s the‍ first time a test has reflected my personal view of what’s going​ wrong in my disease. And clinicians love it because it guides them to amending therapy.

According ​to Gardner, this has great possibilities for personalised medicine:

Just think about this: clinically validated novel targets and the ability ⁣to select patients who will benefit from drugs modulating that target. ⁢That’s incredible. ​It’s like the NHS-led RECOVERY⁢ trial in COVID-19 that discovered dexamethasone—but on steroids—because we’re using genetic evidence to pick the most promising treatments.

Further, last month, the ​partnership successfully reproduced key genetic risk factors for ⁤Long COVID in diverse populations, confirming 88 ‌percent of previously identified genes.

This marks the ‌strongest ‍genetic evidence for Long COVID and supports biomarker-driven diagnostics and ⁣targeted treatments.

Additionally, 11 out of 13 drug repurposing candidates were validated, paving the way‍ for clinical trials and personalised therapeutics.

What’s⁢ exciting about​ PrecisionLife’s work is its potential across a variety of spaces in medical research.

The​ company initially focused on biopharma,working ​with‌ pharmaceutical companies and‌ Contract‌ Research Organizations (CROs) to uncover novel drug targets.

Such as, as ⁢gardner detailed:

When you’ve seen the same⁢ target underpinning disease in 30–40% ‌of a major market, ⁢that ⁢might offer an opportunity to⁢ indication-switch an existing asset into a new indication.There’s real value in that.

PrecisionLife ⁣is also using genetic-based diagnostics to improve early disease identification and clinical decision-making.

Take endometriosis—it⁢ takes 8–10 years for ⁣a confirmed diagnosis via surgery. If we can ‌turn that into a buccal swab that reports in two weeks and refers a patient accurately ​to a gynecologist that’s a game-changer.

Individually, these advances are crucial for patients. But when you add up the costs of delayed diagnosis and misclassification, they become very meaningful.

Additionally,precisionlife’s ⁤insights can optimise patient triage,Gardner shared:

For example,we’re working‍ with the ‍healthcare⁣ system where 5,000 patients are referred to rheumatology yearly due to a non-specific ANA test. Only 10 ‌per cent actually have a rheumatological condition. That’s a massive misclassification problem blocking the system.

Rather than building its ‍own diagnostic business,PrecisionLife‍ is licensing‌ its⁢ tests and ‌decision support systems ​to existing healthcare infrastructures.

We‌ don’t want to build a massive diagnostic business ourselves. The platforms we use are standard and available globally. We can license the ⁣content and clinical decision support system ⁣to operate these tests across multiple markets.and what’s exciting is that it’s almost disease-agnostic.

This model ‍allows⁢ for scalability, making ‌their technology accessible across multiple⁣ conditions and healthcare⁤ markets worldwide.

Is the Future ‘Actively Protective’‍ Genes‌ That Shield Against Disease?

PrecisionLife is pioneering a new approach ⁢to disease⁤ prevention​ by identifying ‘actively protective’ genes—genetic ⁢factors that shield certain high-risk individuals from developing diseases. Traditionally, genetic research focuses on identifying disease-causing mutations, but this new method flips the ​process, searching instead⁤ for individuals who should have developed ​a disease but remain healthy despite having high⁣ genetic risk and exposure to disease triggers.

A‍ recent study ‌ on ME/CFS ​identified nine protein-coding⁢ genes with protective effects,possibly counteracting known disease mechanisms related to insulin signaling,stress response,and autoimmunity.

These findings ⁣open up possibilities for new preventative therapies, including‌ drug targets that function similarly to statins, which lower cholesterol to prevent heart disease.

Additionally, some of these protective genes⁣ could be⁣ harnessed for mRNA-based ​treatments, using the same technology as COVID-19 vaccines to boost natural disease resistance. This could lead to personalised protective treatments, extending healthspan and improving quality of life for high-risk individuals before ⁢disease ever develops.