RELEASE ON RECEIPT




Reporters and Editors: For more information about the patent, contact the 
U.Va. Patent Foundation, Ralph Pinto, at (804) 982-1583.
To arrange an interview with Dr. Taylor, call the U.Va. Health Sciences News 
Office, Marguerite Beck, at (804) 924-5679.

                                                                                                                                         
                                                 Contact: Anne Oplinger
                   INVENTION MAY HELP RED BL00D CELLS BATTLE DISEASE
	CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA., July  15 --In what the inventors hope will be 
a powerful new tool for fighting numerous diseases, Ronald P. Taylor, Ph.D.,  
and his colleagues at the University of Virginia have received a 
"notification of allowance" from the U.S. Patents Office for the use of a 
modified antibody that could boost the bodyUs own defense mechanisms against 
invaders.  The invention makes use of a heteropolymer (HP) to capitalize on 
and improve a normal role played by red blood cells in fighting off disease.
	Although experiments have so far been carried out only in animals, 
Taylor has high hopes that HP will be effective in a wide variety of human 
diseases.  The group has also recently reported on an antigen-based HP system 
designed to treat autoimmune disorders, in which the body mistakenly attacks 
its own tissues.  Arthritis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, and Myasthenia 
Gravis are all autoimmune diseases.
	"The immune system can use both white and red blood cells to clear 
the body of foreign substances, such as proteins, bacteria and viruses," 
says Taylor.   There are special molecules, called CR1, protruding from the 
surface of red blood cells.  Under the right conditions, these CR1 molecules 
lock onto invaders in the blood stream and carry them to the liver and spleen, 
where the invaders are destroyed and the red cells are returned to the 
circulation.  However, compared to the role played by white blood cells, red 
blood cells are bit actors.  "What we've done," says Taylor, "is to improve 
the efficiency of this natural immune clearance function of red blood cells."
	Working with U.Va. researchers William M. Sutherland, Ph.D., and 
Polly J. Ferguson, M.D., and a small group of collaborators, Taylor 
constructed special versions of two-headed immune system molecules called 
bi-specific antibodies or HP.  The HP are able to bind to both target 
pathogens and CR1 on red blood cells.  Normally, antibodies are 
mono-specific and only bind to a single target.  One end of an antibody 
binds with great precision to a foreign substance (collectively called 
antigens), and can then interact with certain immune system cells, thereby 
triggering a concerted response.
	About two decades ago, researchers learned how to make massive 
quantities of any antibody through a technique called monoclonal antibody 
manufacture.  At the time, monoclonal antibodies were hailed as "magic 
bullets" that could be made to seek out and destroy any antigen.  
Unfortunately, monoclonal antibodies have not lived up to their initial 
promise in therapeutic applications.
	"Although monoclonal antibodies and bi-specific antibodies have 
been used with white blood cells in attempts to facilitate destruction of 
tumors, they have never been applied to the special binding and transport 
properties of red blood cells," says Taylor.  "In fact," he adds, 
"conventional wisdom suggested that such methodologies (purposely binding 
antibodies to red blood cells) would cause the red blood cells to rupture."
   Taylor's group defied conventional wisdom and manufactured and tested 
their bi-specific HP, which were made using a wide range of monoclonal 
antibodies.
	In both test tube and animal experiments, the researchers succeeded 
in clearing model pathogens from the bloodstream without loss of red blood 
cells.  Indeed, the HP system improves substantially upon the efficiency of 
the natural process in several respects.  For example, it does not require 
the involvement of the complement system.  Ordinarily, red blood cells begin 
their work only after the antigen is coated by antibodies and certain 
complement molecules.  However, many pathogens do not trigger adequate 
complement coating and -- even in the presence of administered monoclonal 
antibodies -- these pathogens can escape cellular binding and elimination 
from the body.  A system that works independently of complement could be 
useful in combating such pathogens as well as in situations, such as sepsis, 
where a personUs complement system is compromised.
	"The HP-red blood cell system has been consistently and impressively 
verified throughout its development and may indeed substantially improve on 
the shortcomings of existing monoclonal antibody-based therapies," says Taylor.
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                                                July 14, 1995