News - good news. Maybe now the market will take notice of SSB! But the last two positive releases have had little effect so who knows. SSB is a sleeper.
StressGen Biotechnologies Corporation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 1997
Preclinical study confirms StressGen's technology offers new approach in
the fight against infection and cancer
. Whitehead scientists show stress protein fusions work through MHC class I
pathway to activate killer T cells
. Findings published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences
VICTORIA, British Columbia StressGen Biotechnologies Corp. (TSE/VSE: SSB)
today announced preclinical experiments performed at the Whitehead
Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., confirm that the
Company's proprietary technology effectively activates the killer cells or
CTLs necessary to destroy cancer and virus-infected cells. This ability to
activate CTLs overcomes a long-standing problem in vaccine development and
offers a new approach to the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases.
Results from the study, led by Dr. Richard Young of the Whitehead Institute
of Biomedical Research, an affiliate of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), were published today in the Journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Young is the co-inventor of StressGen's
core technology and has been a pioneer in investigating the broad
applications of stress proteins. He is a member of StressGen's Board of
Directors and also sits on the Company's Scientific Advisory Board. In
1992 StressGen obtained a worldwide exclusive license from the Whitehead
institute to make, use and sell products based upon certain discoveries
related to stress proteins made by researchers at MIT.
In the study, scientists created a recombinant protein by fusing together a
stress protein from M. tuberculosis and a protein called ovalbumin, long
used by immunologists to study immune function. When the recombinant fusion
protein was injected into mice the animals mounted an immune response
against ovalbumin and developed immunity against cancer cells that make
ovalbumin. The scientists showed that these soluble fusion proteins can
function as vehicles to deliver viral proteins to the immune system pathway
responsible for stimulating a CTL response -- the major histocompatibility
complex (MHC) class I presentation pathway.
"We are encouraged by these results as they provide additional scientific
validation of the stress protein fusion vaccine approach," said Richard M.
Glickman, StressGen's President and Chief Executive Officer.
MORE . . .
When infection enters the body the immune system responds in two ways. One
arm of the immune system, led by immune cells called B cells, works by
secreting antibodies into the body's bloodstream. These antibodies seek
and destroy the infectious agents circulating in the bloodstream. However,
antibodies have little effect on infected cells. The task of attacking
cells infected by viruses or deformed by cancer falls to a second arm of
the immune system, led by immune cells called T cells. T cells orchestrate
a multi-pronged attack and, if appropriate, produce killer cells called
cytotoxic T cells or CTLs that home in on infected cells and destroy them.
For decades vaccine development experts have sought a simple and practical
way to produce an immune response that activates both arms of the immune
system using soluble proteins. However, vaccines containing soluble
proteins from microorganisms rarely activated a response that included CTLs.
"We were able to solve this problem by taking advantage of the observation
that a class of proteins, called heat-shock proteins or stress proteins,
are exceptions to the rule that soluble proteins are unable to stimulate
CTL responses. In fact, heat shock proteins are extremely potent in
stimulating a CTL immune response," said Dr. Young.
StressGen's intellectual property position includes granted patents
covering the use of stress proteins and their fragments as vaccines for
infectious disease and cancer. In addition, further patent applications
cover novel stress protein genes and novel fusions of stress proteins and
various protein antigens.
StressGen Biotechnologies Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company
engaged in the research and development of stress proteins for use in
cancer treatments and vaccines to prevent infectious disease. The Company
is also an international leader in the development, manufacture and sale of
stress protein research biochemicals.
###
The title of the PNAS paper is "Heat shock fusion proteins as vehicles for
antigen delivery into the major histocompatibility complex class 1
presentation pathway." The authors are:
Kimiko Suzue, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Xianzheng Zhou, Department of Biology and Center for Cancer Research,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Herman N. Eisen, Department of Biology and Center for Cancer Research,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Richard Young, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
