24th May 2016

BBI Solutions launches NGAL Antibodies to help in the fight against a global healthcare challenge; Acute Kidney Injury

As of today, BBI Solutions (BBI) has introduced a new monoclonal antibody to its essential range of reagents for diagnostic assays. NGAL is a new early marker for Acute Kidney Injury (AKI).

AKI is sudden damage to the kidneys that causes them to not work properly. It can range from minor loss of kidney function to complete kidney failure.

Levels of NGAL rise rapidly after renal injury and can be seen before kidney injury reaches a critical stage. Therefore, NGAL can be used to monitor patients and identify those at highest risk.

Dr James Steggles, BBI’s Commercial Manager for Antibodies explained “BBI’s NGAL antibodies can be used in Point of Care ELISA and Lateral Flow assays to test and monitor patients for AKI. The broad dynamic range of detection (1-3000 ng/ml) of our NGAL antibodies means that they can be used to predict and monitor the disease stage. This range can identify patients with a normal level of NGAL compared to patients at higher risk, enabling physicians to take action on patients and potentially save lives.”

AKI is now a major global healthcare challenge with an estimated 13.3 million cases every year. The problem is particularly high in developing countries, where the AKI incidences are thought to be roughly 85% of the global cases.

What’s perhaps more pertinent to note, is that one in eight of the global AKI instances will then result in fatalities, with the majority (over 82%) of these occurring in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr Steggles continues, “We have already received a lot of interest from customers in these developing countries, proving there is an obvious and growing need in these markets. As a result we hope that our NGAL antibodies will work towards fighting this global healthcare challenge.”

NGAL has already been used in a variety of clinical situations including intensive care, emergency medicine, renal transplantation and procedures involving the use of intravenous contrast media and other nephrotoxic agents. Studies have indicated that this marker has the potential to predict and monitor acute renal injury following cardiac surgery. This potential has now been expanded upon, with development and commercialisation of highly specific ELISA testing kits.

BBI’s NGAL monoclonal antibodies are available for testing now; customers can find out more about our NGAL antibodies or antigens or request an evaluation sample via the company’s website.

View the BBI Solutions profile here