The role of Apoquel, Cytopoint & beef-based reagents in Allergy Testing

In 2019, there was a lot of consolidation in the veterinary diagnostic space, and 2020 promises more of the same. We know change is never easy so we wanted to share more details around our technology, the advantages it offers and our commitment to providing you consistent results and support in 2020 and beyond. We also wanted to provide a brief recap of the information we shared at VMX with both our clients and those who use other methods of allergy management.

Comfort Therapies:

Apoquel and Cytopoint are great tools. They do an excellent job of controlling symptoms. Nextmune was surprised at how many veterinarians at VMX had reported less than published success rates within their clinics. Many clinics also reported still using mostly Apoquel rather than migrating over to its newer counterpart, Cytopoint.

Veterinarians in general practice reported to us that the messaging they use most often for clients on comfort therapies informs the pet parent that the disease of allergy continues to progress, often until the therapies no longer work at all. Veterinarians also agreed that when they advise pet parents that the quality of life that can be achieved when doing the testing and starting treatment today is better than it will be than 6 months or a year from now, that resonated with pet parents. That approach, combined with our new Test & Treat package, has allowed our veterinary clients to migrate many of their allergy patients over from “comfort” therapies to real allergy relief.

Synthetic Reagents:

Unlike other allergy diagnostic labs, Nextmune does not report borderlines or borderline positives on our results.  Therefore, we wanted to take some time to how we are able to reduce the “interference-based” reactions also known as borderline results and clarify why our testing does not have any borderline results.

Nextmune is consistently honing-in our testing methodologies to make the test more replicable and reliable. Our 30 years of refinement has generated the following benefits:

• All synthetic reagents. Without beef-based derivatives in the reagents we can ensure that any reaction in the wells are reactions to the allergens rather than a combination of the allergens and the reagents combined. This reduces false positives.

• Competing antibody buffer. We utilize a buffer which binds to all competing antibodies (IgG, IgM, IgA), those antibodies are washed away with that buffer, leaving only the IgE signal. This signal is more consistent with a true allergic response rather than intolerance or sensitivities. This also reduces false positive results.

• Hapten proteins. Nextmune isolates and utilizes the hapten protein (ideal amino acid sequence) specific to each allergen. This allows us to have more consistent allergens from batch to batch.

• Covalent binding to the microtiter plate. ELISA-based testing requires reagent applications and washing the plates throughout the testing process. If the allergen, serum, or chemical reactions aren’t strongly adhered to the plate, they could potentially be flushed out during one of the rising cycles. By coating the plate to allow for a covalent bond, we ensure that any reactions stay on the plate, thus reducing false negative results.

Along with all of these additional measures Nextmune is excited to be putting the finishing touches on another state-of-the-art testing technology that will be the first of its kind to be implemented here in the US. This, in addition to our existing testing process, will improve overall test results, specifically reliability and test accuracy and will be launching very soon and at no additional charge. We can’t wait for you to experience the added benefits the Spot Platinum+ will provide to your clinic, patients, and pet parents.