Thymidine kinase 1 can distinguish Mycoplasma pneumonia from other respiratory infections

Mycoplasma pneumonia is caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae, infecting the lower respiratory tract leading to atypical pneumonia. Current diagnostic tests of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections of the respiratory tract such as PCR and serology are either somewhat unreliable or slow to perform. Thus, they do not meet the clinical needs of accurate and fast diagnosis, that the therapeutic decisions rely on.
 
The newly published article demonstrates that measuring Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) concentration alone can distinguish Mycoplasma pneumonia from other bacterial infections. In fact, TK1 in combination with other infection biomarkers, such as IP-10 or P-HNL, showed even higher accuracy for diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumonia. This shows that TK1 is a potentially promising tool for therapeutic decision-making, not only in the cancer field but also for Mycoplasma pneumonia, especially when used in combination with other markers. The development of assays based on this kind of algorithms could be clinically useful tools in therapeutic decision-making.
 
AroCell has earlier this year applied for a patent based on that respiratory infection in humans caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae lead to significantly increased levels of Thymidine kinase 1 protein, as measured with AroCell’s CE-marked serum TK1 protein assay, AroCell TK 210 ELISA.

“We are happy to have achieved these exciting results that in combination with our patent application opens up new fields for AroCell using TK1 in other clinical areas besides oncology. We have been evaluating the use of TK1 as a marker for certain infectious diseases for some time now. This has opened new possibilities for AroCell.”, says Michael Brobjer, CEO.