Antibody News and Research

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An antibody is a blood protein that is produced in response to and counteracts an antigen. Antibodies are produced in response to disease and help the body fight against the particular disease. In this way, antibodies help the body develop an immunity to disease.

Probiotics provide hay fever hope

With the peak grass pollen season approaching, scientists can reveal that a daily dose of probiotic can change the immune status of people with hay fever.

2 Jun 2008

Arana and Greenovation in anti-cancer co-development deal

Arana Therapeutics Limited and Germany-based greenovation Biotech GmbH have entered into a collaborative agreement to develop next generation anti-cancer antibodies.

2 Jun 2008

New breast cancer drug combo shrinks aggressive tumours

An international trial of a new breast cancer drug has shown the drug is able to shrink tumours caused by one of the most aggressive forms of the disease.

2 Jun 2008

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals updates on Bavituximab breast cancer study

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that results from a Phase I clinical trial of its lead anti-phosphatidylserine (anti-PS) antibody bavituximab in combination with chemotherapy in patients with advanced cancer were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

2 Jun 2008

Medarex announces preliminary data for investigational anti-PD-1 antibody

Medarex, Inc. has announced preliminary data from an ongoing Phase 1 study of MDX-1106 (ONO-4538: development code of Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.), a fully human anti-PD-1 antibody.

2 Jun 2008

Combination biotherapies safe, promising for melanoma patients

The combination of two different biotherapies may be beneficial for patients with inoperable melanoma, according to a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) study presented at the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

1 Jun 2008

Why do Finnish children have type 1 diabetes and allergic symptoms approximately five times more often than children in Russian Karelia?

High living standards and the life style connected to them seem to promote the development of autoimmune diseases and allergic symptoms. This has lead to the assumption that the immune system begins to overreact to the organism's own structures or to exogenous non-infectious proteins, i.e. allergens, when it does not have to work hard enough to protect the individual from infections.

28 May 2008

First patient enrolled in phase III study of Bevacizumab and Trastuzumab in early breast cancer

A new international study for women with HER2-positive breast cancer is open for enrollment. The pivotal BETH (BEvacizumab and Trastuzumab Adjuvant Therapy in HER2-positive Breast Cancer) study is a Phase III clinical research trial that is investigating the benefits of combining two monoclonal antibodies, the anti-angiogenic, bevacizumab (Avastin) and the targeted therapy trastuzumab (Herceptin), together with chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with early stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

27 May 2008

Intracellular antibody mops up mutant protein in Huntington's disease model

Scientists have created a tool for mopping up the clumps of mutant protein that drive neurodegeneration in Huntington's disease. Emory University researchers engineered a virus to make an intracellular antibody or "intrabody" against huntingtin, the protein whose mutant forms poison the brain cells of people with Huntington's.

26 May 2008

Scientists back the use of maize as an efficient 'factory' for protein-based pharmaceutical products

Scientists from the Universidad de Lleida (University of Lleida) have published a study confirming that maize seeds are an effective and sure platform within molecular agriculture to alleviate diseases. Over the next few years AIDS could be one of the first diseases to benefit from these results, although regulations for this technology are being developed at the same time as research is being undertaken.

25 May 2008

Discovery provides hope for patients with pancreatic cancer

This week researchers in the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Oregon Stem Cell Center and the OHSU Digestive Health Center are shining a new ray of hope on patients with pancreatic cancer. They've developed new reagents, or antibodies, that can recognize this often lethal disease. This important discovery may one day lead to earlier detection and treatment.

22 May 2008

An alternative strategy for HIV vaccine research

Today, Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Inc. (ABL) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) report that their unique HIV vaccine formulation was effective in eliciting strong and balanced immune responses in healthy human volunteers.

22 May 2008

Discovery of a molecular scaffold that guides connections between brain cells

Brain cells known as neurons process information by joining into complex networks, transmitting signals to each other across junctions called synapses. But "neurons don't just connect to other neurons," emphasizes Z. Josh Huang, Ph.D., "in a lot of cases, they connect to very specific partners, at particular spots."

21 May 2008

Having a cat may protect children from developing asthma

A study released by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, shows that cat ownership may have a protective effect against the development of asthma symptoms in young children at age five.

20 May 2008

VCU research team awarded NIH grant to study asthma, allergic disease

A team of Virginia Commonwealth University researchers has received a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant totaling nearly $7.3 million for a Cooperative Research Center to study various aspects of asthma and allergic disease.

20 May 2008

NIAID to advance B-cell approach to HIV vaccines

To advance underdeveloped approaches to designing a preventive HIV vaccine, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is launching a new program to foster the study of B cells, immune cells that can produce antibodies with the capacity to neutralize HIV.

20 May 2008

Counting immune cells on a 'protein printboard'

In order to monitor how far an HIV infection has progressed, the number of immune cells - lymphocytes - must be counted. Researchers at the University of Twente have developed a method that neatly arranges the antibodies that bind to these immune cells on a 'molecular printboard'. The researchers are publishing this key step in the road towards antibody-based sensors in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).

20 May 2008

Chemically modified protein may help people with hard-to-treat hemophilia

Pathologists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have developed a chemically modified protein that may help people with a hard-to-treat form of a genetic bleeding disorder known as Hemophilia A. The discovery and the results of pre-clinical tests appear in the May 2 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

19 May 2008

Researchers discover 'reservoir' that allows HIV to remain infectious despite treatment

Researchers at Brigham Young University and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered a human cell "reservoir," called follicular dendritic cells, that allows HIV to stay in an infectious state and not respond to antiretroviral drugs, the Deseret Morning News reports.

19 May 2008