NF155: John Mills, Ph.D.

John Mills, Ph.D., discusses Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ new test to detect neurofascin 155 (NF155) IgG4 antibodies — biomarkers for a rare but serious autoimmune neurological disorder known as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP). The live cell assay is the first commercially available clinical test of its kind in the U.S. and enables heightened specificity by using flow cytometry to measure NF155 antibodies. Positive findings support clinical and electrophysiological diagnosis of NF155-mediated CIDP and can direct clinicians to more aggressive treatment for the progressive disease.

Show Notes

(00:32):

Before we get into the test itself, Dr. Mills, I'd love for you to tell our audience just a little bit about yourself, your background, your role here at Mayo clinic.

 

(01:41):

Can you just give our audience a brief overview of the assay?

 

(05:20):

I really appreciate how the lab has looked at other approaches and decided that this is the best one. Is that an accurate kind of summary.

 

(06:16):

They'll get the result that they need with just one test, right?

 

(07:03):

So can you start with helping our physicians understand which patients should get this testing?

 

(09:05):

You said these immune mediated neuropathies, this test is going to be important for all of those to help, to identify the distinct phenotype of neurofascin155, right, Dr. Mills?

 

(09:43):

I know you mentioned that these are rare disorders, but how common is the neurofascin antibody in that phenotype?

 

(11:27):

Dr. Mills, are there any other alternative options regarding this kind of testing?

 

(13:30):

How is the positive or negative result going to drive the physician in a certain direction regarding prognosis or treatment? Can you share some of that?

 

(14:48):

Do you think there are any prerequisites that physicians should be testing for these particular things before they would order our neurofascin test or does the neurofascin come pretty early on in the differential?

 

(15:36):

Can you elaborate a little more on the next steps? What does a more aggressive treatment plan? What does that mean?

 

(16:09):

We've talked about a lot of the important items, the assay and how it's designed, how this is going to help patient care and how it's unique, but what's your key takeaway here? What are you most excited about?

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