A project called Assessing Coagulation Biomarkers to Accelerate the Discovery of Effective Therapies for COVID-19 (ACT COAG) has received funding from the McMaster COVID-19 Research Fund, Stream 1 – Research with Immediate Impact.
Noel Chan
A sub-study of PHRI’s Anti-Coronavirus Therapies to Prevent Progression of COVID-19 (ACT COVID-19) program, ACT-COAG is led by Principal Investigators Noel Chan, an Investigator at PHRI and at TaARI, and Guillaume Paré, a Senior Scientist at PHRI and Director of the Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL).
The ACT-COAG team is also made up of John Eikelboom (Senior Scientist at PHRI); Emilie Belley-Côté (Investigator at PHRI); Salim Yusuf (Executive Director and Senior Scientist, PHRI); and Richard Whitlock (Scientist, PHRI).
Blood markers of coagulation (clotting) activation are elevated in patients with COVID-19 and predict disease progression, including thrombotic complications and mortality. The ACT-COAG sub-study will measure clotting markers in the ACT research program to detect an early efficacy (or futility) signal, streamline trial conduct, and provide insights into the mechanisms of COVID-19 and its clotting complications.
Improved understanding of coagulation markers will facilitate screening to identify promising therapies earlier, help to predict who is at risk of thrombosis, and shed light on why thrombotic complications are common in COVID-19.
Guillaume Pare
The ACT-COAG sub-study received support from the Hamilton Academic Health Sciences Organization (HAHSO) for coagulation biomarker collection, storage and analyses in 400 patients, as well as the McMaster COVID-19 research fund for other aspects of the study.
