NEWS & EVENTS
PRESS RELEASES 2004
ELUSYS THERAPEUTICS PRESENTS STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS DATA AT ICAAC
Data Demonstrate Potential Efficacy of HP Antibodies in Infectious Disease
Pine Brook, NJ – (November 1, 2004) – Elusys Therapeutics, Inc., yesterday presented data demonstrating the power of its Heteropolymer antibody technology at the 44TH annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, or ICAAC. The data show that Heteropolymer (HP) antibodies can both protect against infection and clear an infection from the bloodstream as they are designed to do.
“These data demonstrate the proof of principle for our proprietary Heteropolymer antibody technology and reinforce the validity of our focus and expertise in infectious disease,” said Stephen Sudovar, president and CEO of Elusys. “What’s particularly exciting is that the data show that our HP technology can use any monoclonal antibody that binds to a pathogen, even one that is not effective by itself against the pathogen, to protect against an infection as well as clear an infection from the bloodstream. This has tremendous potential and value in fighting a broad range of infectious diseases.”
The Elusys S. aureus-HP consists of an antibody to CR1, a receptor on red blood cells, crosslinked to an antibody to Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The HP antibody works by binding and removing the bacteria from the bloodstream. Elusys evaluated the ability of the S. aureus-HP to prevent infection in mice injected with the bacteria, and compared its ability to the single S. aureus monoclonal antibody alone.
The study found that the mice given the Elusys HP were completely protected against a lethal injection of S. aureus strains including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and all survived. In comparison, none of the mice given a much higher dose of the single monoclonal antibody against S. aureus survived. Additionally, HP treated mice were protected from a second lethal injection of S. aureus even in the absence of further HP treatment.
“These data are interesting because they demonstrate that the ability of the single monoclonal antibody to bind to the S. aureus was not sufficient for protecting the mice from infection,” noted Nehal Mohamed, PhD, associate director of preclinical research, who presented the data at ICAAC. “The difference appears to come from the HP itself, which is something we have seen in other studies.”
Elusys also presented in vitro data that show the HP effectively binds the S. aureus bacteria to the red blood cells and carries them to macrophages where the bacteria are destroyed.
The Elusys Heteropolymer Technology
The Elusys Heteropolymer technology is used to chemically join two antibodies together. One antibody targets the specific pathogen to be removed; this half of the HP varies depending on the target pathogen. The other antibody is constant and targets a complement receptor, called CR-1, which is found on red blood cells. The red blood cells carry the pathogen to the liver for destruction and return unharmed to the circulation. The HP technology has the ability to rapidly remove the pathogen from the blood, potentially reducing the high mortality rate of bloodstream infections.
About Elusys
Elusys develops antibody-based therapies using proprietary technologies in Heteropolymer antibody chemistry and complement biology. The Company’s pipeline of products includes treatments for biodefense, cancer, lupus nephritis, infectious diseases and thrombosis. The Company has successfully advanced three products to the IND and Phase I stage, with additional products in its pipeline. Founded in 1998, Elusys is headquartered in Pine Brook, NJ. Additional information about Elusys can be found at www.elusys.com