NK Max "NK View Kit Used in Large-Scale COVID-19 Clinical Trial in Canada"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] NKMAX announced on the 16th that the NK Vue kit will be used in a large-scale clinical trial for COVID-19 patients conducted at The University of Ottawa Hospital under the sponsorship of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG).

The CCTG, which includes The University of Ottawa Hospital, has 80 medical schools and hospitals registered as members across Canada. With 2,100 researchers, it conducts over 500 clinical trials annually in more than 40 countries worldwide. The association was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

The clinical trial is a large-scale study involving approximately 200 COVID-19 confirmed patients who have passed eligibility screening. The NK Vue kit is used to measure NK cell activity to assess the severity of the patients. Based on the measurement results, physicians decide on treatment methods such as admission or discharge from negative pressure isolation rooms for COVID-19 patients. At the start of this clinical trial, two patients have already been registered and are awaiting NK Vue kit testing.

Professor Our, who is leading this research, stated, “There are currently about 30,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada. Due to shortages of medical facilities and staff, it is difficult to provide long-term hospitalization or negative pressure isolation rooms for all patients. By measuring NK cell activity with the NK Vue kit, we will be able to quickly determine the severity, treatment necessity, and treatment order for COVID-19 patients.”

Professor Jongseon Kim of Yonsei University College of Medicine, who led the development of the NK Vue kit, said, “NK cells are known to play an important role not only in anticancer immunity but also in antiviral immunity, and the prognosis of COVID-19 virus-infected patients is likely closely related to NK cell activity. According to research papers published in China, COVID-19 virus-infected patients showed increased expression of NKG2A, a receptor that suppresses NK and T cell expression, depending on the severity.” He added, “We expect to discover meaningful correlations by detecting the functional defects of NK cells commonly observed in COVID-19 patients through NK Vue kit measurements.”

NKMAX is currently in discussions with New York State, USA, where confirmed cases have exceeded 200,000, to utilize the NK Vue kit in the same manner as this clinical trial to help determine treatment options for COVID-19 patients.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.