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Biotech / Medical : Biotransplant(BTRN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (618)	8/2/2000 6:51:01 PM
From: sim1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1475

Looks like my browser works. Here it is again in its entirety. Crucial discovery resulting from research into rejection of transplant organs Research funded by ML Laboratories PLC published today in the scientific journal Nature Immunology has demonstrated for the first time that an immune response in a host responsible for rejecting foreign cells can be blocked. The research, undertaken by Professor Robert Lechler and the immunology team at the Hammersmith Hospital in London has succeeded in preventing the immune system of a host from identifying transplanted cells as foreign. The studies carried out in mice transplanted with porcine pancreatic xenografts demonstrated significantly prolonged survival following immunisation to induce an antibody blocking response. This approach known as donor-specific co-stimulatory blockade, offers the potential major benefit of removing the need for long term immunosuppression following transplantation. Professor Robert Lechler, Head of the Immunology team at the Hammersmith commented: "Our findings offer a novel solution in the battle to get foreign organs accepted by human bodies." "Our first models using cells from the pancreas have been successful and we are now taking these findings on to further, more complex models. Eventually, we hope that using foreign organs in humans may start to solve the huge shortage of organ donors across the world." Lord Winston, director of Research and Development at Hammersmith Hospital, praised Professor Lechler's work: "Several thousand people a year die awaiting organ transplants in this country and there are probably more patients, who because of the shortage of donors, never get on the waiting list." "This remarkable work is a major advance in obtaining donor organs which could save many lives every year." Stuart Sim, CEO of ML Laboratories added: "We believe the ground breaking research carried out by Professor Lechler and his team has resulted in a crucial discovery which heralds a significant advance in this exciting field and may pave the way for foreign organs to be accepted by the human body helping the thousands desperately awaiting transplants where improvements in donor organ availability are not expected to keep pace with demand." "It is our intention to collaborate with appropriate pharmaceutical companies in order to accelerate the development work necessary to rapidly realise the potential of this valuable technology." Note to Editors ML Laboratories is a UK based emerging pharmaceutical company with a portfolio of 12 products in late-stage development 4 of which have been recently launched in the market. ML s early stage development portfolio its product pipeline is sourced from inter-alia funded research programmes of which Professor Lechler s research programme is one example. Technical Note to Editors Pig to human xenotransplantation provides a possible solution to the acute and worsening shortage of donor organs, however, transplanting tissues across species barriers generally leads to rejection by the host immune system. One of the reasons for graft rejection is that cells display certain molecules that activate the immune system leading to graft destruction. One of these molecules is known as CD86 and it is involved in costimulation of T cells. Without this costimulation, T cells will not become activated. Even though xenograft CD86 molecules are not identical to host CD86 molecules, there is enough similarity for the host immune system to recognise and become stimulated by the foreign CD86. In the August edition of Nature Immunology, Lechler and co-researchers from London, United Kingdom, have developed an ingenious solution to this type of xenograft CD86 mediated rejection. The researchers generated an antibody response to the graft costimulatory molecule by immunising mice with portions of porcine CD86. The results showed that the concomitant antibody response is specific to the porcine CD86 molecule but does not interfere with the host CD86. Consequently, direct stimulation of host T cells by the graft is blocked. This antibody blocking of porcine CD86 led to prolonged survival of porcine pancreatic xenografts in immunised mice. This approach has potential clinical utility for use in conjunction with strategies that dampen other aspects of organ rejection.