AI partnership targets earlier MS diagnosis

An AI partnership aims to find blood-based RNA patterns that could support earlier MS diagnosis and track disease progression.

Decode Health and Circular Genomics will work together to analyse circular RNA, stable genetic molecules that may signal disease activity.

The companies hope the approach could help doctors diagnose multiple sclerosis earlier and monitor how the condition changes over time.

Chase Spurlock, chief executive and co-founder of Decode Health, said: “Our team has spent more than a decade building the data, the platform, and the scientific track record to tackle diseases like MS at the molecular level.

“Circular RNAs are an especially compelling next step in that work because of their stability and the depth of the biological signal they carry.”

The collaboration brings together Circular Genomics’ work on circular RNA and Decode Health’s artificial intelligence platform, which analyses large amounts of patient data to find biomarkers.

Biomarkers are measurable signs in the body that can show how a disease is developing or responding to treatment.

Decode Health has been using its platform to identify MS biomarkers and develop an AI-powered blood test to diagnose and monitor the condition.

That work is backed by a US$1.9m grant from the National Institutes of Health.

MS occurs when the immune system mistakenly damages healthy tissue in the brain and spinal cord.

Because MS symptoms and progression can vary widely, doctors are looking for biomarkers that could support MRI scans and neurological assessments.

RNA is genetic material that comes from DNA. The best-known form is messenger RNA, a linear molecule that carries information copied from DNA to make proteins.

Circular RNA is shaped as a closed loop and, unlike messenger RNA, does not encode proteins. Instead, it is thought to help control which genes are switched on or off.

Its circular shape makes it stable and less likely to break down in blood, making it a potential disease biomarker.

The companies will now seek to identify circular RNA “signatures” linked to MS.

These patterns could support earlier diagnosis, help patients start treatment when it is most effective and give clinicians more information on disease progression.

Nikolaos Mellios, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Circular Genomics, said: “By combining our [circular RNA] platform with Decode Health’s AI-driven analytics and extensive MS research, we have the opportunity to develop specific [circular RNA] signatures that support earlier detection and provide new insight into how the disease evolves over time.”