If you’re looking for a reason why INOVIQ (ASX:IIQ) shares jumped 6% out the gate on Tuesday, it’s this – after announcing similar success for Alzheimer’s patients in June, the company now says it can test blood for Parkinson’s.
it all boils down to Inoviq’s software-based proprietary platform, ‘NEURO-NET,’ which ultimately creates a computerised “protein fingerprint” from blood sample data that can differentiate between donors with “normal healthy blood” and those with target conditions.
Both Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and now Parkinson’s Disease (PD), are target conditions INOVIQ states NEURO-NET is more than able to identify.
The implications are obvious: INOVIQ may have just cracked the code to diagnosing Parkinson’s before the condition has a chance to begin reducing quality of life – or before patients let any more time pass.
“NEURO-NET enriches known protein biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases by 5-8-fold compared to measuring them directly from blood, greatly increasing the potential for earlier detection of the onset of Parkinson’s disease,” INOVIQ wrote on Tuesday.
Management further elaborated.
“NEURO-NET has now been validated to capture brain-derived exosomes and identify blood-based exosomal protein biomarkers in both AD and PD,” INOVIQ CEPO Leearne Hinch said.
“These biomarkers can be used to develop potential exosome-based blood tests for earlier detection and/or treatment selection of AD and PD.”
The company is now looking at the university sector to find an academic partner with which to further test the tech and bolster results – towards, eventually, a potential commercialisation of the product down the line.
IIQ last traded at 59cps.