CytoDyn announces update on feline immunodeficiency virus therapeutic antibody program

CytoDyn Inc. (the "Company") (CYDY), a biotechnology company focused on the development of new therapies for combating infection with immune deficiency viruses, announced today that it is presenting an update on its Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) therapeutic antibody program at the 19th West Coast Retrovirus meeting in Palm Springs, California. Dr. Richard Trauger, CytoDyn's Chief Scientific Officer, will present a poster titled "Influence of anti-LFA-1 on FIV infection ex vivo and in vivo," describing new preliminary findings regarding CytoFeline™, a feline reactive monoclonal antibody targeting the cell antigen CD11a under development by CytoDyn for the treatment of feline immunodeficiency virus. The work was performed in the laboratories of Dr. John Elder, Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbial Science at Scripps Research Institute, and Dr. Sue VandeWoude, DVM Associate Dean for Research, CVMBS Professor of Comparative Medicine, DMIP Colorado State University.

Dr. Elder's work, which has been previously reported, demonstrated that feline reactive antibodies to a normal cell protein known as CD11a could inhibit FIV infection of susceptible target cells. Based on these results, a pilot study measuring the effect of a single dose of CytoFeline in FIV infected cats was performed in the laboratory of Dr. VandeWoude.

"Our preliminary findings suggest that a single administration of anti-LFA-1 antibodies to FIV infected cats results in the activation of viral replication followed by a drop to levels slightly below those of placebo control treated animals, with one animal eventually becoming undetectable for FIV. All treated animals returned to control levels by the end of the study," said Dr. VandeWoude. "In addition, treated animals demonstrated a transient significant rise in CD8 and CD4 cells without a concomitant rise in proviral DNA. These results, while preliminary, are very interesting. Further work needs to be done to understand the relationship between the viral and hematological parameters measured in this study."

"We believe that CD11a remains an interesting target for the treatment of FIV infection," said Dr. Trauger. "These preliminary findings highlight the need to explore the activity of anti-LFA-1 antibodies as therapeutics for the treatment of FIV infection in larger studies using multiple doses. We currently are exploring options to create chimeric feline antibodies suitable for multiple dosing to further test this hypothesis, and are happy to announce that a grant of $27,000 dollars has been awarded to Dr. VandeWoude and CytoDyn from Colorado State University to allow us to continue this research project."