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Biotech / Medical : Stressgen (VSE: SSB) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Heat Shock who wrote (161)	4/18/2001 6:49:41 PM
From: Heat Shock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 236

To all: PR- "Stressgen targets hepatitis B as the next Hsp fusion program" "Preclinical Data Presented at Experimental Biology 2001 Support Therapeutic Utility of Stress Protein Fusions" Stressgen yet again uses the same repeatable methodology of fusing a heat shock protein to a highly conserved virus protein to form a single new protein, which acts alone as a therapeutic vaccine that elicits cytotoxic T cells. Along these lines, Stressgen has in early pre-clinical work at Harvard (I think it was) an AIDS vaccine candidate, HspP24, which uses the P24 antigen from deep inside the HIV. VICTORIA, BC, April 17 /CNW/ - Stressgen Biotechnologies Corporation (TSE:SSB) announced today that, based on positive preclinical data presented at the Experimental Biology 2001 meeting held earlier this month, it has chosen to evaluate a novel heat shock protein (Hsp) fusion for its therapeutic potential to treat hepatitis B. Data presented at the conference involved a novel fusion protein containing an Hsp fused to a highly conserved protein from hepatitis B virus (HBV). This fusion has been shown to elicit cytotoxic T cells, which recognize HBV antigens, suggesting they would be capable of killing HBV-infected cells. These T cells were also shown to produce the cytokine interferon gamma, which is known to suppress HBV replication in infected cells. "The results of these studies demonstrate the potential efficacy of this novel fusion in the immunotherapy of chronic HBV infection," said Marvin I. Siegel, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Research and Development of Stressgen. Stressgen believes that its hepatitis B program could offer hope in countering the disease's significant worldwide impact on human health. "The need for new and effective therapies for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains great," said Timothy M. Block, Ph.D., President of The Hepatitis B Foundation of America and Professor and Director of The Jefferson Center of Jefferson Medical College. "Despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine, there are still more than 400 million people worldwide who are chronically infected with the virus. Without intervention, as many as 100 million of these individuals will die from HBV-induced disease. The problem isn't limited to lesser developed countries, although Asia and Eastern Europe are particularly impacted. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 1.25 million carriers with more than 200,000 new infections last year." "The approach developed by Stressgen to couple heat shock proteins to immunogenic viral proteins in order to produce a new class of vaccines is novel," said Lawrence R. Stanberry, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of Pediatrics and Director, Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "This strategy has the potential to yield therapeutic vaccines, products designed to treat the patient suffering from a chronic infection. Using its heat shock protein strategy to develop an immunotherapeutic against diseases caused by human papillomaviruses (HPV), the Company has generated very interesting clinical data suggesting these products can be effective in humans who are suffering from chronic HPV infection. These promising results raise the hope of developing therapeutic molecules for other chronic or persistent viral infections including herpes, hepatitis, and HIV." "We are pleased with promising results coming out of our research and development program and will continue to evaluate and expand these initiatives to capitalize on the therapeutic potential of stress proteins and stress protein fusions," said Daniel L. Korpolinski, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stressgen. Stressgen is evaluating the potential of HspE7 as a broad based therapeutic for diseases caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). The Company currently has a number of clinical trials ongoing, including one Phase III trial, and several Phase II trials, and will soon initiate a clinical trial to evaluate HspE7 for the treatment of a serious HPV-related disease, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), for which the FDA recently granted orphan drug status. RRP is caused by the same HPV types that cause genital warts. HspE7, a recombinant fusion product created with Stressgen's proprietary Hsp fusion technology, is composed of heat shock protein 65 (Hsp65) from Mycobacterium bovis BCG and the protein E7. As a member of the family of stress proteins, Hsp65 is known to elicit a powerful immune response. The E7 protein is derived from HPV and is involved in the malignant transformation of epithelial cells. E7 is a tumor-specific antigen and represents a precise target for the immune system attack on infected cells. Stressgen is a public biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative stress protein-based immunotherapeutics. The Company is developing a broad range of products for the treatment of viral infections, related cancers, asthma, allergy and other diseases based on its Hsp technology. Stressgen is an internationally recognized supplier of research products for the study of cellular stress, apoptosis, oxidative stress and neurobiology, which are used by scientists worldwide. newswire.ca Heat.