Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in LaJolla, CA, have signed a license agreement with Genentech, a wholly owned member of the Roche group, and Roche that grants the companies exclusive rights to manufacture, develop, and market human monoclonal antibodies to treat and protect against group 1 influenza viruses. These viruses include the strains for the current seasonal and H1N1 influenzas. Genentech and Roche also have a non-exclusive right to manufacture, develop, and market diagnostic tests for group 1 influenza. Complete terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Dana-Farber and Sanford-Burnham will receive license fees and may receive milestone payments and royalties.
Wayne A. Marasco, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School, Robert Liddington, PhD, professor and director of the Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center at Sanford-Burnham, and colleagues demonstrated that the newly identified antibodies attach to the stem region of the viral proteins (hemagglutinin) rather than to the head region — the standard target of current influenza vaccines. Binding to the highly conserved stem region prevents changes in the protein that are necessary for viral entry into the host cell, thereby inhibiting further infection of host cells and the rise of escape mutants. Standard influenza vaccines that consist of an attenuated, or killed, virus typically stimulate antibodies against the protein’s head. These vaccines are less effective as the head region is prone to change, leading to the rise of forms of the virus that can evade neutralizing antibodies. The researchers reported their discovery in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.
Source: Medical News Today