Immunogenicity

SAFETY ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES AND PREDICTIVE SAFETY OF BIOPHARMACEUTICALS 

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As a low molecular weight compound DAS is not significantly immunogenic, ie, it is a hapten and thus requires conjugation to a suitable antigenic carrier in order to eUcit a successfiil antibody response in animals. DAS treated with succinic anhydride results in the D AS—hemisuccinate (DAS—HMS) shown. 

As shown in Table 2, free DAS, as expected, is its own best displacing agent, whereas only DAS—HMS showed any appreciable displacing capabiUty. This can be expected because the hemisuccinate linker is also immunogenic and leads to the production of antibodies specific for the linker in the polyclonal antibody population. AH the other toxins had at least lOOx less the avidity for the antibody, illustrating the specificity of the aDAS for DAS. 

The active immunotherapeutic approach is specific and based on the premise that tumor antigens are immunogenic and the host is sufficientiy immunocompetent to mount an effective immune response to an autologous tumor. Theoretically, a weak or suppressed host immune system that had allowed the formation of a tumor may be overridden by active immunization or immunostimulation. In practice, vaccines composed of so-called autologous tumor extracts have been used to treat patients with malignant melanoma (73), and purified melanoma tumor-associated antigens have been used to ehcit antibody responses in melanoma patients (74). 

Standardization and Testing". RequHemeats are geaerally specified within Hceases Hi the United States, and include a variety of Hi-process tests to assess purity, safety, and potency of the iadividual components and potency and safety of the final product. Potency is standardized by determining the size of the conjugate and the quantitative amount of saccharide that is bound to the carrier protein. General safety and immunogenicity is assessed Hi animals. 

Influenza. Although current influenza vaccine (subunit spHt vaccine) has been in use yearly for the elderly, it is not recommended for the general population or infants. Improvements to increase or prolong the immunogenicity, reduce the side-effects (due to egg production procedure), and provide mass protection are stiU being pursued. One approach is to use a five, attenuated vims though cold adaptation. A vaccine has been used in Russia and demonstrated to be safe and efficacious for infants (82). Clinical trials for a similar vaccine are being carried out in the United States (83). 

One of the early vaccine candidates was directed against sporo2oites, the form of the parasites that is first injected into the host by a mosquito. With recent development of recombinant techniques, several circumsporo2oite proteins or its related peptides were proposed as the vaccine candidates. Clinical trials have been carried out. The vaccines were immunogenic, but did not provide sufficient protective efficacy (90,91). 

Development of conjugate and peptide vaccines requires the typical organic synthesis process and purification. This is a new area for vaccine technologists. Again, the main concern is to maintain the immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate during the chemical reaction and purification steps. 

Ricin [9009-86-3], a phytotoxin found in the seeds of the castor oil plant Acinus communis, conjugated to murine monoclonal antibody (Immunogen Corp.), has been approved by the U.S. Food and Dmg Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with B-ceU leukemia and lymphoma (59). 

In medical applications some important biological properties - immunogenic, anti-tumour and anti-viral - can be exploited, as well as the established functional properties based on rheology and gel formation. 

The first mouse monoclonal antibody specific for human CD3 was produced in 1979 and named orthoclone OKT3. Aside from its use in the laboratory, OKT3 became the first anti-CD3 antibody to be utilized in transplantation medicine, but its wider application was hampered by its immunogenic and mitogenic properties (reviewed in [6]). Consequently, humanized and engineered anti-CD3 antibodies were developed to circumvent these limitations (Table 1). Since T cells and the TCR are involved in many immunological diseases, it is not surprising that the application of CD3 antibodies is not restricted to the field of transplantation. For example, CD3 antibodies are tested in clinical studies of diseases such as autoimmune diabetes (type 1 diabetes), immune-mediated inflammatory arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease [7]. 

The most common method to extract xylan is the alkaline extraction. Several pretreatment methods can be used in association in order to break the covalent bonds that exist between xylan and other carbohydrates during the extraction (Wang Zhang, 2006). A number of articles studied the use of ultrasound on the xylan extraction. Hromadkova and coworkers reported that 36.1% of xylan was extracted from corn cobs with 5% NaOH solution at 60°C for 10 min of ultrasonication in comparison with 31.5% of xylan in the classical extraction. Both extractive methods yielded xylan with immunogenic properties (Hromadkova et al., 1999). 

Wyatt R, Sodroski J (1998) The HlV-1 envelope glycoproteins lusogens, antigens, and immunogens, Science 280 1884-1888... 

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