Team Rallybio at HealthLumen
Rallybio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, will be presenting the findings of a genetic database analysis study conducted in partnership with HealthLumen on Fetal and Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia (FNAIT) risk across racially and ethnically diverse populations at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2024 Annual Meeting. The conference will take place from November 5–9 2024 in Denver, Colorado.
The study results show that the annual proportion of pregnant women at higher-risk for FNAIT, associated with carrying the HPA-1a negative (HPA-1b) and HLA-DRB3*01:01 positive genetic variants, has been significantly underestimated.
Proportions of women at potential risk of alloimmunizing – a critical step in the development of FNAIT – were highest in Caucasian populations, with the Ashkenazi Jewish population showing the highest proportions (2.36% and 0.65% of women at potential risk and at higher-risk, respectively), followed by non-Finnish Europeans (2.34% and 0.64%), Middle Eastern (2.25% and 0.62%), Amish (2.25% and 0.62%), White Hispanic (2.25% and 0.59%) and Finnish populations (2.03% and 0.56%).
Women in non-white population groups were also found to be at risk, including the Caribbean Hispanic population (1.48% and 0.33%), and the African/African American population (1.13% and 0.28%). Populations of South Asian, East Asian, and Amerindigenous ancestry were found to be at a lower risk of alloimmunizing.
These findings suggest that over 30,000 pregnancies each year in North America and major European countries are at higher risk for FNAIT, representing a 40% increase compared to prior estimates.
This study used HealthLumen’s sophisticated genetic datamining methodology and the gnomAD and US National Marrow Donor Program databases to determine allele frequencies for HPA-1b and HLA-DRB3*01:01 per-ancestry group in the US.
In Rallybio’s press release issued on September 23, 2024, Rallybio’s CEO, Dr. Stephen Uden, emphasized the significance of this study in better understanding FNAIT risk across diverse ancestries, saying, “Data from this analysis provide clear evidence of the extent to which ancestries beyond the Caucasian population can carry a higher risk for FNAIT, underscoring the importance of screening all pregnant women for FNAIT risk as part of standard prenatal care.” Rallybio will share the full data from this first ever FNAIT epidemiological analysis, as well as the underlying methodology of this novel study, at the upcoming ASHG annual meeting.
Learn more about FNAIT here.