Tongji Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology to Transfer SFTS Prognostic Scoring Model Patent for RMB 5 Million

Recently, Tongji Hospital affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology released a public notice on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, proposing to transfer its owned“A Simplified Prognostic Scoring Model for Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome and Its Construction Method and Application”The patent, following asset valuation by an appraisal firm, consent from all inventors, and mutual negotiation between the parties, was transferred to the industry partner through agreed pricing, with a transaction price ofRMB 5 million。

The core value of this transaction lies in the constructed SFTS-Wuhan simplified scoring model, which enables precise stratification of patients’ 30-day mortality risk using seven objective and easily accessible indicators. With its operational simplicity, controllable costs, and broad applicability, the model provides strong support for precision medicine and optimized resource allocation, demonstrating high promotional and application value across medical institutions at all levels. The inventors of this patent are Ning Qin and her team.

Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) is a fatal emerging infectious disease caused by the novel SFTS bunyavirus (SFTSV). The disease was first reported in China in 2009, and its endemic range has since gradually expanded to multiple regions in East Asia. In 2018, it was included by the World Health Organization in its list of the top ten priority infectious diseases.

This disease is primarily transmitted through tick bites, and cross-infection may also occur via direct contact with the blood or body fluids of infected individuals. Its clinical manifestations are extremely severe; patients typically present with sudden high fever as the initial symptom, followed by rapid onset of thrombocytopenia, systemic bleeding tendencies, and gastrointestinal dysfunction. In severe cases, it can lead to multiple organ failure.

Currently,There are currently no specific antiviral drugs or effective preventive vaccines available worldwide., leading to the disease'sMortality rates have long remained at 12%-50%., posing a continuous and severe threat to public health security.

What makes the situation even more challenging is that, given the rapid progression of SFTS and the significant inter-individual variability, clinical diagnosis and treatment have long faced a core challenge, namelyLack of comprehensive objective indicators capable of quantifying disease severity and scientifically assessing patient prognosis risk。

This situation forces physicians to rely solely on their individual clinical experience when assessing patients, determining disease severity, and formulating symptomatic supportive treatment plans. This not only leads to significant variations in therapeutic outcomes across different medical institutions and among different physicians, but also frequently results in delayed therapeutic interventions for high-risk patients and overtreatment of low-risk patients, thereby adversely affecting patient prognosis and causing waste of medical resources.

Currently, although there have been some attempts to assess the prognosis of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) both domestically and internationally, most are limited to single-indicator analyses, such as age, neurological symptoms, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), ferritin levels, or specific calculated metrics (e.g., Log10(lactate dehydrogenase × blood urea nitrogen / lymphocyte count)).

These approaches generally suffer from critical drawbacks: they fail to establish dedicated validation cohorts for systematic verification of metric validity, and their predictive accuracy and clinical utility lack sufficient substantiation.evidence. This has prevented these assessment methods from being systematically promoted in clinical practice, failing to fundamentally address the challenges of precision in the diagnosis and treatment of SFTS.

Therefore, in view of the high fatality rate of SFTS, the lack of evidence-based guidance in diagnosis and treatment decision-making, and the significant limitations of existing assessment systems, there is an urgent clinical need to develop a prognostic risk stratification tool that is objective, accurate, easy to operate, and adaptable to healthcare settings with varying levels of resources. Such a tool represents a critical entry point for reducing patient mortality and achieving efficient allocation of medical resources.

Addressing the clinical pain points in the diagnosis and treatment of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS), the research team at Tongji Hospital, affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, has successfully developed a simplified prognostic scoring model for SFTS (SFTS-Wuhan) through systematic research. The construction logic and technical design of this model feature multiple breakthrough innovations, with core advantages covering all scenarios of clinical application.

In terms of innovative design, the model employs a dual-cohort study architecture comprising “multicenter retrospective + single-center prospective” cohorts. It constructs a training set using data from 544 patients and establishes a validation set with data from 170 patients, thereby ensuring broad data coverage and representativeness.

Through univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, precisely screened from dozens of clinical indicators, including sex, vital signs, and laboratory tests,age, temperature at admission, use of vasoactive drugs, white blood cell count (WBC), platelet count (PLT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and creatinine (Cr)Independent risk factors directly associated with 30-day patient mortality laid the scientific foundation for the prediction model.

Meanwhile, the R&D team utilized X-tile software to determine the risk cutoff values for each indicator, simplifying the complex original prediction model (SFTS-logistic) into an intuitive and computable scoring system. This approach not only preserved core predictive performance but also significantly lowered the threshold for clinical application.

Furthermore, this model possesses the following core advantages:

First,High Prediction Accuracy, the AUC values of the model were all greater than 0.84, with the AUC of the validation set reaching 0.919. Furthermore, validated through multiple statistical methods including the Hosmer-Lemeshow test, ROC curve analysis, and NRI/IDI analysis, its goodness-of-fit and stability far exceed those of existing single-indicator assessment schemes.

Second,Clear and Distinct Layering, with a total score of 0–32 corresponding to three risk levels: low (0–12 points, mortality risk <5%), moderate (13–18 points, mortality risk 5%–25%), and high (19–32 points, mortality risk >25%). Survival rates differed significantly across these strata (P<0.0001), providing a clear basis for treatment decisions.

Third,Highly Universal, all included indicators are routine clinical tests that require no specialized equipment and feature simple, easy-to-understand operational procedures. They can be rapidly implemented in both tertiary hospitals and primary healthcare institutions, ensuring cost controllability.

Fourth,Significant Clinical Value, Decision Curve Analysis (DCA) demonstrated that, in a clinical scenario with a cost-benefit ratio of 1:9, its net benefit surpassed that of the original model. This approach effectively mitigates delayed interventions for high-risk patients and overtreatment of low-risk patients, thereby facilitating optimized allocation of medical resources and personalized precision medicine.

Currently, there are no specific drugs or vaccines for SFTS worldwide. However, in addition to the successful clinical implementation of the SFTS-Wuhan simplified prognostic scoring model developed by Tongji Hospital, research projects in this field are also advancing steadily.

Nanobody Combination “Cocktail Therapy”: Jointly developed by Professor Wu Xilin’s team from the Medical School of Nanjing University in collaboration with multiple domestic institutions. As a novel therapeutic carrier, nanobodies offer advantages such as high affinity and low immunogenicity. The core mechanism involves two nanobodies, Nb261 and Nb318, which target key sites on SFTS virus proteins to block viral infection, thereby exerting broad-spectrum inhibitory effects against different viral subtypes.

Furthermore, this research has achieved breakthrough progress in the field of preclinical animal studies. In a ferret model simulating the immune profile of the elderly, all experimental animals survived following treatment, with viral loads reduced to the lower limit of detection. Pharmacokinetic and toxicological studies are currently advancing steadily, with clinical trials planned for 2026.

Optimization of the Nomogram for In-Hospital Mortality Risk: The nomogram for in-hospital mortality risk reported in the journal *New Medical Knowledge* incorporated five independent risk factors: age, viral load, gastrointestinal bleeding, pulmonary fungal infection, and serum ferritin. Its area under the curve (AUC) was 0.936 (95% CI 0.906–0.965), with a sensitivity of 0.893 and a specificity of 0.847. Currently, this nomogram is undergoing optimization for clinical applicability, facilitating personalized prognostic assessment in healthcare institutions.

VV261 Tablets (Small-Molecule Drug): Jointly developed by Wangshan Wangshui (Shanghai) Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and others. The drug initiated Phase I clinical trials in December 2025 and is currently in the “active, not yet recruiting” stage. Clinical trial registration information indicates that its indication is listed as SFTS; however, it has not yet entered the efficacy verification phase for SFTS patients.

In the future, with the practical implementation of the Tongji Hospital SFTS-Wuhan model and the gradual maturation of various tools under development, the diagnosis and treatment of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) are expected to establish a comprehensive model characterized by “symptomatic supportive care + precise risk stratification + personalized intervention.” This approach will not only significantly improve the early identification rate of critically ill patients and reduce mortality but also optimize the allocation of medical resources, thereby preventing both overtreatment and undertreatment. By providing a “Chinese solution” for global SFTS prevention and control, this model holds substantial significance for enhancing the diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities for emerging infectious diseases and safeguarding public health security.