Antibody Therapeutics — Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that protect against toxins, or protective mAbs, have proven to be useful agents for treating infectious diseases caused by toxins in one’s system. Paradoxically, most of the antibodies that are generated to fight toxins are non-protective in nature. In seeking greater understanding of this role about which very little is known, researchers led by graduate student Siu-Kei Chow and his mentor Dr. Arturo Casadevall have shown that, compared to protective mAb treatment alone, a combination of protective and non-protective mAbs against anthrax toxin protective antigen (PA) leads to synergistic protection in mice challenged with anthrax toxin. The enhanced defense is driven by the formation of PA complexes that contain both types of antibodies, which results from the ability of each arm of the mAbs to bind to different targets. Through the demonstration of the protective potential of these mAbs, researchers may have promising new possibilities for antibody-based therapeutic study. The findings appear in the April 17 issue of Cell Host & Microbe. Dr. Casadevall is professor and chair of and microbiology & Immunology, as well as professor of medicine (infectious diseases). He also holds the Leo and Julia Forchheimer Chair in Microbiology & Immunology and is director of the Center for Immunological Sciences.
Posted on: Wednesday, May 22, 2013