Drug Discovery

Immunotherapy Screening – OX40:OX40L pathway

21/10/2015 by Ali El Baya, PhD No Comments

The treatment of diseases by inducing, enhancing, or surpressing an immune response is referred to as Immunotherapy. T-cell activation and inactivation requires the coordination of various co-inhibitory and co-stimulatory signals and most immunotherapies modulate these signals.

Therapeutic manipulation of immunopathways has lead to promising clinical results for the treatment of a number of diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and inflammatory diseases. Research in this field is rapidly evolving as scientists seek to identify the next generation of therapies.

Over the past 12 months I have introduced a number of pathways and proteins involved, which represent potential targets for drug discovery campaigns and I’ve presented assays to measure inhibitor effects on these pathways (B7-1 / CD28 and B7-1 / CTLA4; PD-1/PD-L1/PD-L2; BLTA:HVEM, CD47:SIRPα; GITR:GITRL; CD40:CD40L; CD137:CD137L; IDO).

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Drug Discovery

9 pathway-specific screening assays in Immunotherapy

02/07/2015 by Ali El Baya, PhD No Comments
The immune system is a system of cells and organs whose function is to defend an organism from foreign pathogens. With the ability to mount a response against virtually any foreign material and return to a quiescent state following neutralization of the threat, this fascinating organ system displays remarkable specificity and plasticity. To achieve this, there is a multifaceted balancing act between the many activators and suppressors which maintains homeostasis of the body’s perhaps most complex organ system.
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Drug Discovery

Immunotherapy Screening – IDO pathway

24/03/2015 by Ali El Baya, PhD No Comments

In previous blogs, I invited you to join me in exploring the relevance of the following pathways:

PD1 - PD-L1 - PD-L2

 

Today I’d like to focus on the IDO pathway.

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Drug Discovery, Supplying Discovery Tools

Immunotherapy Screening – CD137:CD137L pathway

14/01/2015 by Ali El Baya, PhD No Comments

In previous blogs, I invited you to read about the relevance of the B7-1 : CD28, B7-1 : CTLA4, the BLTA:HVEM, CD47:SIRPα , the GITR:GITRL, the CD40:CD40L and the  PD-1/PD-L1/PD-L2 pathway for immunotherapy screenings and discussed the products available to work on these pathways. Today, I will focus on the CD137:CD137L pathway.

CD137 is another co-stimulatory protein that is expressed on activated T cells. Unlike CD40:CD40L signaling, which primarily involves helper T-cells, CD137 has a crucial role in the development of cytotoxic T-cells and anti-tumor immunity. Its ligand, CD137L, is mainly expressed on antigen-presenting cells, such as activated B cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells, as well as on human tumor cells.

Co-stimulation through CD137:CD137L enhances T-cell activation, promotes the rejection of cardiac allografts and skin transplants, and eradicates experimentally induced tumors in animal models. Several clinical studies are on-going that use agonistic anti-CD137 antibodies to induce an anti-cancer response to solid tumors.

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