Search for a Cure!

Through a long and often misunderstood use antibodies have been instramental agents for the achievement of health, resistance, and immunization.  From the imbibment of toxins to garner resistance to their poisons by Mithridates the Sixth, to the discovery and classification of antibodies as the "Magic Bullet" by Paul Ehrlich in the early 1900's, to the now over 30 patented FDA approved monoclonal antibodies as therapeutic agents by the modern medical industry for centuries we have been leveraging this naturally binding agent for its high specificity to targets, gentle metabolization by the body, and long half-life.  

This is the story of the history of antibodies, their use and the discovery of how to manipulate and design them for specific purposes, and their potential future and role as important therapeutic agents to ease the burden of treatment for HIV patients and to help in bringing about the end of transmission and the end of the HIV epidemic.

Yesterday there was the announcement of the official acquisition of the monoclonal antibody PRO-140 from Progenics Pharmaceuticals by CytoDyn Inc.  As the monoclonals continue to emerge as useful tools for other areas of medicine, we are pleased to share the value that they represent to the HIV community.  We feel it is especially important to pursue research in this area as the data shared with us on our Jan. 13th roundtable discussion with experts in the field physicians demonstrates that these therapies really can work.  Please read more to begin to understand why these long lasting therapeutics are so important to our community. 

The monoclonal antibody PRO140, which is the most developed antibody therapy for HIV at this point with compelling phase II clinical data, may be getting a new home with a company who has their own antibody technology against a different target.  This union of antibodies under one roof has the potential to benefit both technologies as an approval from the FDA for either will be beneficial for both and for the generation that will inevitably follow.  The companies are in negotiations and Search For A Cure is supportive of an agreement being made.  Click read more to see the whole story.

In 2009 Search was introduced to an interesting monoclonal antibody that had been used in a 188 patients in the early days of the disease before the antivirals existed that showed promissing evidence of viral reduction. The antibody is called Cytolin.  Since then we have been following the progress of its development as it is now being researched by Dr. Eric Rosenberg at Massachusetts General Hospital.  We conducted an interview with Dr. Rosenberg about its progress in October of 2011 which you can read under our Q&A section here.  To our surprise in the last few years there has been an explosion of antibodies being approved as therapeutics for all kinds of illnesses, and there are now multiple promising ones in the lab with potential for the HIV population including Ibalizumab, Cytolin, and PRO140.

Following is a brief of the due diligence report that Search For A Cure put together and delivered to Dr. Eric Rosenberg at the Massachusetts General Hospital back in 2009.  After speaking with leading expert researchers and physicians who had experience working with the site of attachment of the monoclonal antibody to CD11a at the epitope RS S6F1 Search organized their responses and delivered the report after which Dr. Rosenberg decided in review of the expert input to perform an in vitro experiment of the antibody to determine a proof of concept and potentially a mechanism of action for the antibodies affect in the presence of the immunodeficiency virus.  Please click Read More to see the brief and feel free to download a PDF version by scrolling to the  Attachments: section at the bottom of the article.