Interleukin 2 News and Research

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Stress increases resistance to influenza infection

A new study using mice suggests that a repeated stressful situation that triggers the animals' natural "fight-or-flight" response may actually enhance their ability to fight disease when re-exposed to the same pathogen.

2 Mar 2010

Belatacept Biologics License Application: FDA drug advisory committee recommends approval

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee has voted 13 to 5 to recommend approval of belatacept, a selective co-stimulation blocker, for the prophylaxis of acute rejection in de novo kidney transplant patients.

2 Mar 2010

EpiCept provides business update and fourth-quarter financial highlights

EpiCept Corporation today announced operating and financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009, and provided an update on Ceplene® and several of the Company’s key product candidates.

25 Feb 2010

VARI researchers find ways to reverse resistance to sunitinib: Patients with ccRCC show positive response

Van Andel Research Institute researchers have found a way to reverse resistance to sunitinib, a treatment that is currently the first line of defense against clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), a deadly form of kidney cancer. Most patients who show a positive response to sunitinib develop a resistance to the drug after one year of treatment.

19 Feb 2010

Eat fruits and vegetables to prevent heart disease

As heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States for all adults, a new report released by the Nutrilite Health Institute, America's Phytonutrient Report: Heart Health by Color*, shows that Americans are falling short on heart-healthy phytonutrients.

17 Feb 2010

Psoriasis drug Enbrel to account for less than one-fifth of sales in 2018 overall market

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, owing to increasing competition from other biologic agents, Amgen/Pfizer/Takeda's Enbrel (etanercept)—the leading therapy in the psoriasis drug market in 2008—will account for less than one-fifth of sales in the overall market in 2018. In 2008, Enbrel garnered half of the psoriasis drug market share in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.

10 Feb 2010

Pazopanib drug slows the progression of RCC in patients by 54%

The drug pazopanib (Votrient) slowed the progression of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a form of kidney cancer, in patients by 54% percent, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

5 Feb 2010

DNA variants in mother and fetus can increase risk of preterm labor

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have identified DNA variants in mothers and fetuses that appear to increase the risk for preterm labor and delivery.

4 Feb 2010

Cytheris broadens patent protection for recombinant human interleukin-7

Cytheris SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development of new therapies for immune modulation, today announced that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its patent application "Glycosylated IL-7, Preparation and Uses", US Patent Application Number 11/996,176. The Notice of Allowance is the USPTO’s official communication that the Company’s application has successfully completed examination and that a patent will be issued.

2 Feb 2010

New biomarker may predict treatment outcomes in RA patients

Investigators have identified a biomarker that could help doctors select patients with rheumatoid arthritis who will benefit from therapy with drugs such as Enbrel, a tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-antagonist drug.

30 Jan 2010

Findings could guide in developing more effective vaccines for HIV/AIDS and cancer

In an acute viral infection, most of the white blood cells known as T cells differentiate into cells that fight the virus and die off in the process. But a few of these "effector" T cells survive and become memory T cells, ensuring that the immune system can respond faster and stronger the next time around.

29 Jan 2010

Blocking action of key protein boosts immune 'memory' to prevent or clear viral infection

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a potential new way to stimulate the immune system to prevent or clear a viral infection. By blocking the action of a key protein in the mouse immune system, they were able to boost immune "memory" in those mice-work that may one day help doctors increase the effectiveness of human vaccines designed to prevent viral infections.

28 Jan 2010

Prometheus Laboratories executes commercialization agreement with Novartis

Prometheus Laboratories Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical and diagnostic company, today announced the execution of a commercialization agreement with Novartis under which Prometheus acquired exclusive rights to distribute, promote and sell PROLEUKIN® (aldesleukin) in the United States.

27 Jan 2010

Health Canada approves Novartis' Afinitor to treat patients with mRCC

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. (Novartis) announced today that Afinitor(R) (everolimus), a once-daily oral cancer treatment, has been approved by Health Canada for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), also known as advanced kidney cancer, after failure of initial treatment with VEGF-receptor targeted therapies Sutent(R) (sunitinib) or Nexavar(R) (sorafenib).

20 Jan 2010

LABEC Pharma meets European regulatory guidelines to sell Interleukin Genetics' Heart Health genetic test

Interleukin Genetics, Inc. and LABEC Pharma, S.L. announced today that LABEC Pharma has met European regulatory guidelines to sell Interleukin Genetics' Heart Health genetic test. The test, which helps to identify individuals at elevated risk for early heart attack, will be marketed to physicians in Spain and Portugal by LABEC Pharma under the product name Cardio Health™.

20 Jan 2010

Researchers discover potential treatment for blinding disease

The discovery of an inflammatory mediator key to the blinding effects of diabetic retinopathy is pointing toward a potential new treatment, Medical College of Georgia researchers said.

18 Jan 2010

New findings may yield novel therapies for chronic neurodegenerative diseases

We all have at one time or another experienced the typical signs of an infection: the fever, the listlessness, the lack of appetite. They are orchestrated by the brain in response to circulating cytokines, the signaling molecules of the immune system. But just how cytokines' reach extends beyond the almost impenetrable blood-brain barrier has been the topic of much dispute.

18 Jan 2010

Cytheris commences enrollment in its recombinant human Interleukin-7 INSPIRE 2 program for HIV

Cytheris SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development of new therapies for immune modulation, today announced that it has begun enrolling patients in INSPIRE 2, a Phase IIa clinical program evaluating the company’s investigative immune-modulator, recombinant human Interleukin-7 (CYT107), in the treatment of chronically HIV-1 infected patients classified as Immunological Non Responders (INR) after at least 12 months of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART).

12 Jan 2010

Yoga lowers number of compounds in blood and reduces inflammation

Regularly practicing yoga exercises may lower a number of compounds in the blood and reduce the level of inflammation that normally rises because of both normal aging and stress, a new study has shown.

12 Jan 2010

EpiCept, Meda enter into exclusive commercialization agreement for Ceplene

EpiCept Corporation announced today that it has entered into an exclusive commercialization agreement for Ceplene® (histamine dihydrochloride) with Meda AB, a leading international specialty pharmaceutical company based in Stockholm. Ceplene is EpiCept’s novel therapy approved in the European Union with orphan drug status for the remission maintenance and prevention of relapse of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in first remission.

11 Jan 2010