Interferons are a group of signaling proteins made and released by host cells in response to the presence of several viruses. In a typical scenario, a virus-infected cell will release interferons causing nearby cells to heighten their anti-viral defenses.
A monoclonal antibody is an antibody made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell.
Lemna is a genus of free-floating aquatic plants referred to by the common name "duckweeds." They are morphologically divergent members of the arum family Araceae. These rapidly growing plants have found uses as a model system for studies in community ecology, basic plant biology, ecotoxicology, and production of biopharmaceuticals, and as a source of animal feeds for agriculture and aquaculture. Currently, 14 species of Lemna are recognised.
Pharming, a portmanteau of "farming" and "pharmaceutical", refers to the use of genetic engineering to insert genes that code for useful pharmaceuticals into host animals or plants that would otherwise not express those genes, thus creating a genetically modified organism (GMO). Pharming is also known as molecular farming, molecular pharming or biopharming.
Sir Gregory Paul Winter is a Nobel Prize-winning English molecular biologist best known for his work on the therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies. His research career has been based almost entirely at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering, in Cambridge, England.
A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biologic(al) medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, they include vaccines, whole blood, blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapies, tissues, recombinant therapeutic protein, and living medicines used in cell therapy. Biologics can be composed of sugars, proteins, nucleic acids, or complex combinations of these substances, or may be living cells or tissues. They are isolated from living sources—human, animal, plant, fungal, or microbial. They can be used in both human and animal medicine.
Immunogenicity is the ability of a foreign substance, such as an antigen, to provoke an immune response in the body of a human or other animal. It may be wanted or unwanted:
Biological response modifiers (BRMs) are substances that modify immune responses. They can be both endogenous and exogenous, and they can either enhance an immune response or suppress it. Some of these substances arouse the body's response to an infection, and others can keep the response from becoming excessive. Thus they serve as immunomodulators in immunotherapy, which can be helpful in treating cancer and in treating autoimmune diseases, such as some kinds of arthritis and dermatitis. Most BRMs are biopharmaceuticals (biologics), including monoclonal antibodies, interleukin 2, interferons, and various types of colony-stimulating factors. "Immunotherapy makes use of BRMs to enhance the activity of the immune system to increase the body's natural defense mechanisms against cancer", whereas BRMs for rheumatoid arthritis aim to reduce inflammation.
Lemna minor, the common duckweed or lesser duckweed, is a species of aquatic freshwater plant in the subfamily Lemnoideae of the arum family Araceae. L. minor is used as animal fodder, bioremediator, for wastewater nutrient recovery, and other applications.
Interferon alpha-1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IFNA1 gene.
Interferon alfa-2b is an antiviral or antineoplastic drug. It is a recombinant form of the protein Interferon alpha-2 that was originally sequenced and produced recombinantly in E. coli in the laboratory of Charles Weissmann at the University of Zurich, in 1980. It was developed at Biogen, and ultimately marketed by Schering-Plough under the trade name Intron-A. It was also produced in 1986 in recombinant human form, in the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology of Havana, Cuba, under the name Heberon Alfa R.
Interferon alpha-2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IFNA2 gene.
Albinterferon is a recombinant fusion protein drug consisting of interferon alpha (IFN-α) linked to human albumin. Conjugation to human albumin prolongs the half-life of the IFN-α to about 6 days, allowing to dose it every two to four weeks.
Interferon alfa (INN) or HuIFN-alpha-Le, trade name Multiferon, is a pharmaceutical drug composed of natural interferon alpha (IFN-α), obtained from the leukocyte fraction of human blood following induction with Sendai virus. Interferon alfa contains several naturally occurring IFN-α subtypes and is purified by affinity chromatography. Although the pharmaceutical product is often simply called "interferon alpha" or "IFN-α" like its endogenous counterpart, the product's International nonproprietary name (INN) is interferon alfa.
Antibody Solutions is a privately held American contract research organization headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It provides research and discovery services and fit-for-purpose antibodies to biopharmaceutical and diagnostic companies and academic researchers worldwide. The company’s services include monoclonal and polyclonal antibody and antigen development, molecular modeling, antibody sequencing and engineering, bioreactor technology, pharmacokinetic studies, antibody epitope binning, peptide synthesis, immunoassay development, ligand-binding assay analysis, and support for CAR-T research.
Cambridge Antibody Technology was a biotechnology company headquartered in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom. Its core focus was on antibody therapeutics, primarily using Phage Display and Ribosome Display technology.
John McCafferty is a British scientist, one of the founders of Cambridge Antibody Technology alongside Sir Gregory Winter and David Chiswell. He is well known as one of the inventors of scFv antibody fragment phage display, a technology that revolutionised the monoclonal antibody drug discovery. McCafferty and his team developed this process following failures previously generating antibodies by immunizing mice. Later improvements of antibody phage display technology enables the display of millions of different antibody fragments on the surface of filamentous phage and subsequent selection of highly specific recombinant antibodies to any given target. This technology is widely exploited in pharmaceutical industry for the discovery and development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies to treat mainly cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases. One of the most successful was HUMIRA (adalimumab), discovered by Cambridge Antibody Technology as D2E7 and developed and marketed by Abbott Laboratories. HUMIRA, an antibody to TNF alpha, was the world's first phage display derived fully human antibody, which achieved annual sales exceeding $1bn therefore achieving blockbuster status. Humira went on to dominate the best-selling drugs lists - in 2016: The best selling drugs list researched by Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, published in March 2017, details that Humira occupied the number 1 position for 2015 and 2016. Whilst for 2017, Abbvie reports that Humira achieved $18.427billion of sales in 2017
Allozyne is a clinical stage biotechnology company headquartered in Seattle's biotech and high tech innovation corridor. Allozyne was founded in 2005 by California Institute of Technology researchers, and was incubated by Accelerator Corporation. Its lead product candidate, AZ01, is a long acting interferon beta for the treatment of the relapsing remitting form of multiple sclerosis, a chronic degenerative disease characterized by demyelination of nerve fibers leading to severe nerve damage and increasing disability. Multiple sclerosis is estimated to affect 400,000 individuals in the US alone and 2.5 million worldwide. AZ01 is currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials in the US. Preclinical data indicates that AZ01 has the potential to be dosed once monthly compared to the current standard of care dosed anywhere from once daily to once per week.
Synthon is a Dutch multinational that produces generic human drugs.
Synthetic antibodies are affinity reagents generated entirely in vitro, thus completely eliminating animals from the production process. Synthetic antibodies include recombinant antibodies, nucleic acid aptamers and non-immunoglobulin protein scaffolds. As a consequence of their in vitro manufacturing method the antigen recognition site of synthetic antibodies can be engineered to any desired target and may extend beyond the typical immune repertoire offered by natural antibodies. Synthetic antibodies are being developed for use in research, diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Synthetic antibodies can be used in all applications where traditional monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies are used and offer many inherent advantages over animal-derived antibodies, including comparatively low production costs, reagent reproducibility and increased affinity, specificity and stability across a range of experimental conditions.
