Real-World Analysis Shows Growing Use of Octave’s MS Disease Activity Test in Clinical Practice

Jennifer Graves, MD, PhD

A retrospective descriptive data analysis presented earlier this year demonstrated the growing real-world utilization of Octave’s Multiple Sclerosis Disease Activity (MSDA) test, a serum-based, multi-analyte biomarker assay, in clinical practice across centers in the United States.¹

Overall, 12,833 MSDA tests were ordered from 122 institutions and 205 healthcare providers since its commercial availability began in 2022. The analysis, presented at the 2025 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) Annual Meeting, included 10,394 patients with MS who had been treated with such test as of December 2024. The use of the MSDA test, which incorporates a panel of over 18 proteins, led the decision to use a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) in 44% of patients. An additional 32.1% reported not currently on a DMT.

Led by Jennifer Graves, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurosciences and the director of neuroimmunology research at the University of California San Diego, the baseline demographics for the analysis included mainly female (77%) and White (79.7%) patients. Rounding out the cohort, 15.6% of patients were Black and 4.2% were Hispanic. The mean age of the cohort was 51.9 years, with a mean disease duration of 13.8 years.

READ MORE: Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right Disease-Modifying Therapy for Newly Diagnosed MS

Octave’s test uses proteomic and AI-driven algorithms to produce: an overall disease activity score on a score from 1-10, categorized as low (1-4), moderate (4.5-7), or high (7.5-10), as well as 4 biological pathway subscores–each reflecting a different facet of MS disease mechanisms. In the real-world analysis, the MSDA scores from the cohort were 63.5% low, 29.6% moderate, and 6.9% high, with a mean disease activity score of 3.8. Most patients (80.2%) had 1 MSDA test, while 16.8% had 2 tests, and 3% had 3 or more.

In the study, the top healthcare providers reported indications for use that included routine/longitudinal monitoring, pre/post therapy, relapse assessment, and baseline evaluation. At the conclusion of the study, the authors noted that additional research is needed to truly unlock the full potential of the MSDA test, “ensuring its seamless integration into clinical workflows and its ability to revolutionize the management of MS care."

Since its arrival in 2022, the MSDA tests have been used in various research contexts, including in helping compare the effectiveness of approved therapeutics. An analysis of the phase 3 ULTIMATE studies presented last year at the 2024 ECTRIMS Congress showed that ublituximab (Briumvi; TG Therapeutics), an approved anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, led to more consistent decreases in disease activity, captured through MSDA, over a 96-week period than teriflunomide (Aubagio; Sanofi), another recently approved DMT.

In the study, 100% of ublituxumab-treated patients (n = 21) had low DA scores at week 96 in comparison with 30% of those treated with teriflunomide (n = 20). For teriflunomide, 40% of treated patients had moderate DA and 30% had high DA scores, signifying a contrast in impact on disease activity between the 2 therapies. All told, investigators concluded that the findings support MSDA as a quantitative measurement tool for evaluation of disease activity and therapeutic efficacy.

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REFERENCES
1. Graves J, Livingston T, Gatta G, et al. NIB07 - Real-World Utilization of a Novel Multi-Analyte Blood Based Biomarker Panel, the Octave Multiple Sclerosis Disease Activity Test in Clinical Practice in the United States. Presented at: 2025 CMSC Annual Meeting; May 28-31; Phoenix, AZ. ABSTRACT NIB07.
2. Qureshi F, McCurdy S, Sheng E, et al. Comparison of Multiple Sclerosis Disease Activity (MSDA) Test results between patients treated with ublituximab and teriflunomide in the phase 3 ULTIMATE I and II studies. Presented at: ECTRIMS Congress; September 18-20, 2024; Copenhagen, Denmark. Abstract P1516/1382