192 results about "Immunostimulant" patented technology

Compositions and methods are provided which can be utilized in active immunization as a prophylactic treatment or a therapeutic treatment for tumors. The compositions are employed as injectable tumor vaccines or as preparations for intratumoral administration and are capable of stimulating immune responses to specific tumor antigens. The tumor vaccines are composed of an antigenic cellular material including a plurality of inactivated tumor cells or tumor cell portions, a depot material, and an immunostimulant adsorbed to the depot material. The depot material with absorbed immunostimulant is mixed with the tumor cells or tumor cell portions to form the vaccine compositions. The preparations for intratumoral administration include the depot material adsorbed immunostimulant without the antigenic cellular material. The immunostimulant adsorbed to the depot material permits release of biologically active quantities of the immunostimulant over a period of time rather than all at once.

Methods of inducing T cell proliferation and expansion in vivo for treating conditions wherein antigen-specific T cell immune response are therapeutically desirable such as cancer, infection, inflammation, allergy and autoimmunity and for enhancing the efficacy of vaccines are provided. These methods comprise the administration of at least one CD27 agonist, preferably an agonistic CD27 antibody, alone or in association with another moiety such as immune stimulant or immune modulator such as an anti-CD40, OX-40, 4-IBB, or CTLA-4 antibody or an agent that depletes regulatory cells, or a cytokine. These mono and combination therapies may also optionally include the administration of a desired antigen such as a tumor antigen, an allergen, an autoantigen, or an antigen specific to an infectious agent or pathogen against which a T cell response (often CD8+) is desirably elicited.

The present invention relates to polysaccharide conjugates that comprise: a polysaccharide that binds to surface-receptors present on Antigen Presenting Cells, conjugated to one or more compounds having stable carbonyl groups covalently attached, either directly or via a bifunctional linker. The conjugates are useful as immuno-stimulants and adjuvants.

The core structure of pentaerythritol has been used as a replacement for one or both sugars in lipid A, leading to the generation of a series of lipid A analogs. These lipid A analogs may further differ from lipid A with respect to, e.g., the number, nature and location of negatively charged groups, and the number, nature and location of the lipid chains. The lipid A analogs may be lipid A agonists useful as immunostimulatory agents, or lipid A antagonists useful in the treatment of septic shock. In a like manner, a residue of pentaerythritylamine may be used as a replacement for an amino sugar residue in a carbohydrate ligand having a biological activity of interest, generating a series of ligand analogs. These are useful, e.g., as haptens, inhibitors of bacterial-host cell adhesion, etc.

Described is a composition and method for reducing the occurrence and severity of infectious diseases, especially infectious diseases such as SARS, in which lipid-containing infectious viral organisms are found in biological fluids, such as blood. The present invention employs solvents useful for extracting lipids from the lipid-containing infectious viral organism thereby creating immunogenic modified, partially delipidated viral particles with reduced infectivity. The present invention provides delipidated viral vaccine compositions, such as therapeutic vaccine compositions, comprising these modified, partially delipidated viral particles with reduced infectivity, optionally combined with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or an immunostimulant. The vaccine composition is administered to a patient to provide protection against the lipid-containing infectious viral organism or, in case of a therapeutic vaccine, to treat or alleviate infection against the lipid-containing infections viral organism. The vaccine compositions of the present invention include combination vaccines of modified viral particles obtained from one or more strains of a virus and / or one or more types of virus.

Immunostimulatory polysaccharides can be preferentially extracted from food-grade microalgae using an aqueous ethanol extraction procedure. The resulting preparations exhibit extremely potent immunostimulatory activity. The preferential extraction of these immunostimulatory polysaccharides is dependent on the concentration of ethanol used and the extraction temperature. The most efficient conditions are 50% ethanol concentration at temperatures between 60° and 70° C. The isolated polysaccharide preparations are potentially useful as a botanical or pharmaceutical preparation to improve immune function.