monoclonal antibodies Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Antibody Shows Promise for Preventing Organ Rejection After Transplantation

The AHA! Team — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 04:30:14 +0000

Duke Health – DURHAM, N.C. – A man-made antibody successfully prevented organ rejection when tested in primates that had undergone a kidney transplant, Duke Health researchers report. The finding clears the way for the new monoclonal antibody to move forward in human clinical trials. Results of the study appear online Aug. 30 in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “Current medications to prevent organ rejection are good overall, but they have a lot of side effects,” said lead author Imran J. Anwar, M.D., a surgical research fellow in Duke’s Department of Surgery. “These therapies suppress the immune system, putting patients at risk of infections and organ damage, and many cause non-immune complications such as diabetes and high blood pressure. “The push over the last decades has been to develop new, less toxic drugs,” Anwar said. “We are hopeful this antibody moves us closer to that goal.” Anwar and colleagues, including co-senior author Allan Kirk, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Surgery, focused on a monoclonal antibody identified as AT-1501. It was engineered to minimize the risk of blood clots, which had become problematic for an earlier version of this therapy. In studies using primates that had undergone kidney transplantation, AT-1501 prevented rejection without the need for additional immunosuppressive drugs or promoting blood clots, confirming its immunosuppressive potential. In animals that had undergone islet transplantation, AT-1501 alone did not lead to uniform rejection control, but it was effective in combination with existing immunosuppressive agents. The combination therapies in islet transplantation led to uniform islet graft survival without weight loss or infections that can typically arise. The islet transplants were performed by Norma Kenyon, Ph.D., co-senior author and professor at the University of Miami. “These data support AT-1501 as a safe and effective agent to promote both islet and kidney transplant survival and function and allow us to advance into clinical trials right away,” Kirk said. “This less toxic approach has been pursued for over 20 years, and I think we are finally at a turning point. This could be a great advance for people in need of organ transplants.” In addition to Kirk and Anwar, study authors include Dora M. Berman, Isabel DeLaura, Qimeng Gao, Melissa A. Willman, Allison Miller, Alan Gill, Cindy Gill, Steve Perrin, Camillo Ricordi, Philip Ruiz, Mingqing Song, Joseph M Ladowski, and Norma S. Kenyon. The study received funding support from the National Institutes of Health (U19-AI051731), the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, and Anelixis Therapeutics, now Eledon Pharmaceuticals, which is developing AT-1501 for kidney and islet cell transplant. To read the original article click here.

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Monoclonal Antibody Treatment Taken by Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Reduces Mortality

AHA Publisher — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 07:00:54 +0000

Duke Health via New-Medical – A monoclonal antibody treatment taken by patients hospitalized with COVID-19 did not improve recovery time but did reduce deaths, according to a study published July 8 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The therapy, tixagevimab/cilgavimab, was developed and deployed quickly in response to the pandemic. Data was analyzed as part of an international NIH-sponsored clinical trial, including a site at Duke that enrolled about 10% of the study participants. In the very early days of COVID, approximately 25 percent of hospitalized patients died from their illness, and there was a huge imperative to find something that works. Now, with better therapies, in addition to better population immunity from vaccination and prior infections, that number is down. We still have work to do, and trials like this one help point us to additional therapies that may benefit our patients. Thomas Holland, M.D., co-lead author, infectious disease specialist and associate professor of medicine at Duke Data on another successful approach, using the immune modulator baricitinib in combination with the antiviral remdesivir, were also recently reported in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Lead author Cameron Wolfe, M.D. is an infectious disease specialist and associate professor of medicine at Duke. “The big picture is, monoclonal antibodies are a full-spectrum treatment,” Wolfe said. “They have a role from prevention, treatment of early disease, and hospitalized respiratory failure. We are hopeful this could be another class of medications for use in hospitals for COVID patients.” In the study of tixagevimab/cilgavimab, the phase 3 placebo-controlled trial included 1,455 patients and took place at 81 sites on four continents. Duke enrolled 147 patients, making it the highest enrolling site. Patients were randomized and infused with tixagevimab/cilgavimab or a placebo, in addition to remdesivir and other standard care. By day 90, sustained recovery was achieved by 87% of people who were given tixagevimab/cilgavimab and 84% of placebo group participants. Mortality was lower by nearly 4% in the tixagevimab/cilgavimab group. “One out of every three patients who would have died without the treatment survived after receiving the monoclonal antibodies,” said co-lead author Adit Ginde, MD, MPH, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and emergency department physician at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. “That’s a remarkable signal for benefit and suggests that this and other similar treatments may save lives in patients with severe COVID-19.” In addition to Holland and Ginde, a full list of study authors is included on the study. To read the original article click here.

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New Biological Antibiotics Can Beat Tuberculosis

AHA Publisher — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 08:00:50 +0000

Brian Blum via Israel21c – Researchers at Tel Aviv University have demonstrated in laboratory mice that monoclonal antibodies can be substituted for antibiotics to hinder the growth of tuberculosis germs. It’s estimated that around a quarter of the world’s population is infected by tuberculosis. In Israel, there are about 200 cases a year. Antibiotics are the usual course of treatment, but antibiotic-resistant strains of tuberculosis are now as high as 40 percent in some countries. Monoclonal antibodies (derived from single cells) have been in the news as one of the most promising “cures” for Covid-19. Antibodies from patients who have recovered from a particular illness can then be injected into a sick person to stimulate the immune system. For the new research, antibodies were isolated from a recovered tuberculosis patient. After the antibodies were introduced to mice infected with tuberculosis, the mice recovered. This marks the first time that researchers have managed to develop a “biological antibiotic” from human antibodies. The study was led by Dr. Natalia Freund and doctoral candidate Avia Watson at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Medical Faculty, and carried out in collaboration with labs in the United States and China. The results were published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The use of monoclonal antibodies – the basis behind immunotherapy – has in recent years changed the way physicians treat cancer, autoimmune diseases and viral infections such as Covid-19. “Antibiotics are highly efficacious and cost effective, and therefore for the last years have been our only weapon against bacterial infections,” Freund explains. “Unfortunately, antibiotics become less and less effective, and in the main cases of drug resistance, physicians are empty-handed in finding an appropriate treatment for their patients. Therefore, new ways to kill bacteria are urgently needed.” Freund called the new study “an initial proof-of-concept of employing monoclonal antibodies as an effective therapy in combating bacterial pathogens.” The monoclonal antibodies produced in Freund’s lab work against three different strains of the tuberculous bacteria, and she expects they will be effective against other strains that were not investigated, as well. The antibodies Freund isolated inhibited bacteria growth and reduced bacterial levels by 50% in mice compared with mice that were not treated. “The model that has proven successful in this study will enable us to extend our future work to include other diseases such as pneumonia and staphylococcus infections,” Freund says. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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COVID Treatment Offers Instant Immunity, and It’s Already Available

AHA Publisher — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 07:00:17 +0000

Staff at CBN News – Nationwide, new cases of COVID-19 are declining, dropping 14 percent in the last two weeks. But on the local level, cases are still rising in at least 10 states. Meanwhile, there’s some good news on the medical front. By now you’ve probably heard a coronavirus vaccine may be here by Christmas. What you may not know is one treatment offering instant immunity is available now, and another like it could be available within weeks, much sooner than a vaccine will be ready. National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins says they both show promise. “One of the things I’m pretty excited about is the opportunity to use convalescent plasma, that is plasma that is donated by people who have survived. So if people who are listening who have survived, I hope that they would look into going to their Red Cross or blood bank and donating a unit of blood because that might save somebody else,” Collins said. “And we can go even further than that and actually purify the antibodies of people who’ve survived, called monoclonal antibodies. Those are about to get tested within the next few weeks to see whether they also provide lifesaving benefits,” he said. Those synthetic monoclonal antibodies could be available next month. The US government has awarded the drug company Regeneron a $450 million contract to begin production of an antibody treatment. Other drug companies are also working on similar treatments. “When a virus infects our bodies, our immune system creates these antibodies,” CBN News Medical Reporter Lorie Johnson explains. “So people with healthy immune systems who have already recovered from COVID-19 still have these wonderful antibodies in their blood, and they’re being asked to donate that blood. So please go to coronavirus.gov and see how you can donate a unit of blood because that blood is full of those wonderful antibodies and can be transfused into people who are very, very sick with COVID-19.” This article has been modified. To read the original article click here. For more articles from CBN News click here.

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