29 March 2019 - - The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has expanded the intellectual property protections covering US-based autoimmune neurobiology company Moleculera Labs, Inc's Cunningham Panel (Patent No. US 10,228,376 B2), the company said.

Specifically, the USPTO added human serotonin receptors 5HT2A and 5HT2C to the covered molecular targets, broadening the panel's use to a wider range of neuropsychiatric targets and conditions with an underlying autoimmune origin.

Research has increasingly pointed to a relationship between infection-triggered inflammatory attacks on the brain and neuropsychiatric conditions.

Results of the Cunningham Panel assist physicians in determining the likelihood that a patient's neuropsychiatric symptoms are due to an infection-triggered autoimmune response, rather than a primary psychiatric disorder.

Moleculera Labs is a privately-held autoimmune neurobiology company whose objective is to discover and deliver advanced testing services for children and adults suffering from treatable autoimmune central nervous system disorders.

The company's initial offering is the Cunningham Panel, a set of tests aimed at assisting clinicians in the diagnosis of PANDAS and PANS, conditions associated with motor tics, obsessive compulsive disorder, and sometimes autism spectrum disorders, that researchers believe to be caused by an autoimmune response triggered by common infections.

Moleculera Labs is a technology spin-out from the University of Oklahoma and operates a full CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment) and COLA (Commission on Laboratory Accreditation) certified clinical laboratory in Oklahoma City where it performs the Cunningham Panel for physicians and clinicians throughout the United States and globally.