Adenoviral vector patent issued to University of Texas.Introgen Therapeutics therapeutics Treatment and care to combat disease or alleviate pain or injury. Its tools include drugs, surgery, radiation therapy, mechanical devices, diet, and psychiatry. (Austin, TX) announced that a patent directed to classes of adenoviral vectors has been awarded to the University of Texas (Austin, TX) and is exclusively licensed to Introgen. These classes of adenoviral vectors are particularly important in the commercial production of adenovirus adenovirus Any of a group of spheroidal viruses, made up of DNA wrapped in a protein coat, that cause sore throat and fever in humans, hepatitis in dogs, and several diseases in fowl, mice, cattle, pigs, and monkeys. vectors, and in a number of emerging cancer and gene therapy fields, such as the use of oncolytic viruses An oncolytic virus is a virus used to treat cancer due to their ability to specifically infect cancer cells, while leaving normal cells unharmed. Viruses can be engineered to be replication competent only in cancer cells, leading to cell lysis and dose amplification at the site of to kill cancer cells cells once believed to be peculiar to cancers, but now know to be epithelial cells differing in no respect from those found elsewhere in the body, and distinguished only by peculiarity of location and grouping. See also: Cancer . The patent claims of United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Patent 6,630,344 broadly cover adenoviruses engineered to control tissue replication through the use of tissue specific control elements. Dr. David L. Parker, Introgen's vice president for intellectual property said, "This patent complements the issued and previously announced patent relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc INGN 007, Introgen's oncolytic virus therapy being developed in collaboration with VirRx, Inc. This new patent covers the basic enabling technology for tissue specific replication, and thus will be relevant both to those involved in the development of selectively replicating oncolytic viruses as well as the commercial production of second generation adenoviruses that are predicated on adenoviral replication in specific cell types." Adenoviruses are a widely used tool in the fields of gene therapy and vaccines. This patent provides a number of useful modifications to current adenoviral technology that will provide significant advantages in the development of adenovirus-based therapies and in the commercial scale production of adenoviruses. For example, it is often desirable to have a mechanism for programming the virus to selectively replicate rep·li·cate v. 1. To duplicate, copy, reproduce, or repeat. 2. To reproduce or make an exact copy or copies of genetic material, a cell, or an organism. n. A repetition of an experiment or a procedure. in targeted cancer cells while, at the same time, delivering therapeutic 'payloads,' such as tumor tumor: see neoplasm. cell killing genes, to the targeted tumors. Additionally, many current applications of adenovirus-based therapies, particularly oncolytic virus therapies, involve tissue specific replication of the virus. Oncolytic viruses replicate in cancer cells, which leads to a disruption ("oncolysis") of these cells and tumor regression. Furthermore, in terms of commercial scale adenovirus production, it is often important to have the ability to selectively replicate the adenoviruses in particular producer cells. This patent covers adenovirus vectors that have all of these important capabilities. Introgen is a leading developer of biopharmaceutical products which use non-integrating genes to produce a therapeutic protein to treat cancer and other diseases. Introgen maintains integrated research, development, manufacturing, clinical and regulatory departments and operates a commercial- scale, CGMP manufacturing facility. Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. +1-512-708-9310, www.introgen.com |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion