Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2000

Advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as well as improved biotechnology has enabled selective targeting of the pathogenic elements of disease. Targeting cell recruitment through adhesion molecules has been shown to be successful in pre-clinical murine models. Results of studies of an anti-ICAM-1 monoclonal antibody and anti-sense oligonucleotides have been encouraging. An alt Read More

Both innate and T helper (Th) immunity play a central role in fungal infections. A bi-directional influence exists between the two compartments of the immune system, mainly occurring through cytokine production. On the one hand, protective Th1 or nonprotective Th2 cells mediate resistance or susceptibility to disseminated and localized fungal infections by secreting cytokines with activating or deactivating signals for effector Read More

Identification of the smallest antibody fragment still capable of binding to antigen has progressed from full antibody molecules to Fab and recombinant single chain Fv fragments. Now, a further reduction to single domain binding proteins based upon immunoglobulin VH and VH-like domains offers exciting prospects in the development of novel immunotherapeutics and immunodiagnostics. Minimisation of the antigen Read More

The demand for increased throughput during primary screening using less reagents is changing the way of drug discovery. Searching for hits using high throughput screening in 96-well format plates is being replaced by the use of higher density plates, such as 384 and 1536-well formats. The analysis of radiometric assays by scintillation counters is becoming limiting since only 12 wells can be counted at a time. Charged couple Read More

It is well known that protein/peptide-based drug formulations are more stable in the solid state than in the liquid state, thereby offering stability advantages in ambient temperature storage, product shipping/distribution, and long-term shelf life. Novel powder-based drug delivery systems recently emerging for applications in sustained release, inhalation, intradermal delivery, etc. add more value to protein solid dosage for Read More