1547 results about "Immunosuppression" patented technology

An intravascular stent and method for inhibiting restenosis, following vascular injury, is disclosed. The stent has an expandable, linked-filament body and a drug-release coating formed on the stent-body filaments, for contacting the vessel injury site when the stent is placed in-situ in an expanded condition. The coating releases, for a period of at least 4 weeks, a restenosis-inhibiting amount of a monocyclic triene immunosuppressive compound having an alkyl group substituent at carbon position 40 in the compound. The stent, when used to treat a vascular injury, gives good protection against clinical restenosis, even when the extent of vascular injury involves vessel overstretching by more than 30% diameter. Also disclosed is a stent having a drug-release coating composed of (i) 10 and 60 weight percent poly-d/-lactide polymer substrate and (ii) 40-90 weight percent of an anti-restenosis compound, and a polymer undercoat having a thickness of between 1-5 microns.

The present invention relates in part to methods for suppressing the innate immune response of a cell to transfection with an exogenous nucleic acid, to methods for increasing expression of a protein encoded by an exogenous nucleic acid by repeated delivery of the exogenous nucleic acid to a cell, and to methods of changing the phenotype of a cell by differentiating, transdifferentiating or dedifferentiating cells by repeatedly delivering one or more nucleic acids that encode defined proteins. A method is provided for extended transient transfection by repeated delivery of an in vitro-transcribed RNA (“ivT-RNA”) to a cell to achieve a high and sustained level of expression of a protein encoded by an ivT-RNA transcripts.

Oligonucleotides containing unthylated CpG dinucleotides and therapeutic utilities based on their ability to stimulate an immune response in a subject are disclosed. Also disclosed are therapies for treating diseases associated with immune system activation that are initiated by unthylated CpG dinucleotides in a subject comprising administering to the subject oligonucleotides that do not contain unmethylated CpG sequences (i.e. methylated CpG sequences or no CpG sequence) to outcompete unmethylated CpG nucleic acids for binding. Further disclosed are methylated CpG containing dinucleotides for use antisense therapies or as in vivo hybridization probes, and immunoinhibitory oligonucleotides for use as antiviral therapeutics.

Methods and compositions for inhibiting interleukin-21 (IL-21)/IL-21 receptor (MU-1) activity using antagonists of IL-21 or IL-21 receptor (“IL-21R” or “MU-1”), are disclosed. IL-21/IL-21R antagonists can be used to induce immune suppression in vivo, e.g., for treating, ameliorating or preventing autoimmune or inflammatory disorders, including, e.g., inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), transplant/graft rejection, psoriasis, asthma, fibrosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Isolated cells are described that are not embryonic stem cells, not embryonic germ cells, and not germ cells. The cells can differentiate into at least one cell type of each of at least two of the endodermal, ectodermal, and mesodermal lineages. The cells do not provoke a harmful immune response. The cells can modulate immune responses. As an example, the cells can suppress an immune response in a host engendered by allogeneic cells, tissues, and organs. Methods are described for using the cells, by themselves or adjunctively, to treat subjects. For instance, the cells can be used adjunctively for immunosuppression in transplant therapy. Methods for obtaining the cells and compositions for using them also are described.

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for use in mediating an immunosuppressive reaction. The compositions of the invention comprise exosomes having immunosuppressive activity. Such exosomes may be derived from a variety of different cell types, including antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells and macrophages. Prior to isolation of exosomes, the cells may be genetically engineered to express molecules capable of enhancing the immunosuppressive activity of said exosomes and/or may be exposed to one or more agents, such as cytokines or cytokine inhibitors, which are also capable of enhancing the immunosuppressive activity of exosomes. The present invention also relates to the use of such exosomes for the treatment of diseases and disorders associated with undesirable activation of the immune system. The present invention also includes exosomes isolated directly from serum that have been shown to be immunosuppressive.

The present invention provides novel purines useful for the prevention and treatment of autoimmune diseases, inflammatory disease, mast cell mediated disease and transplant rejection. The compounds are of the general formula I:

The present invention is based on the seminal discovery that targeted immunomodulatory antobodies and fusion proteins can counter act or reverse immune tolerance of cancer cells. Cancer cells are able to escape elimination by chemotherapeutic agents or tumor-targeted antobodies via specific immunosuppressive mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment and such ability of cancer cells is recognized as immune tolerance. Such immuno-suppressive mechanisms include immunosuppressive cytokines (for example, Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β)) and regulatory T cells and/or immunosuppressive myeloid dendritic cells (DCs). By conteracting tumor-induced immune tolerance, the present invention provides effective compositions and methods for cancer treatment, optional in combination with another existing cancer treatment. The present invention provides strategies to counteract tumor-induced immune tolerance and enhance the antitumor efficacy of chemotherapy by activating and leveraging T cell-mediated adaptive antitumor immunity against resistant or disseminated cancer cells.

This invention relates to the production of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies to specific sites of rapamycin (Sirolimus). The reactivity of these poly and monoclonal antibodies make them particularly useful for immunoassays for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). These immunoassays or TDM kits may include polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies to specific sites of rapamycin. These kits may also include various combinations of polyclonal antibodies, polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies or a panel of monoclonal antibodies. Rapamycin conjugate immunogens are prepared for the immunization of a host animal to produce antibodies directed against specific regions of the rapamycin molecule. By determining the specific binding region of particular antibody, immunoassays which are capable of distinguishing between the parent molecule, active metabolites, inactive metabolites and other structurally similar immunosuppressant compounds are developed. The use of divinyl sulfone (DVS) as the linker arm molecule for forming rapamycin-protein conjugate immunogens is described. DVS-linked rapamycin-protein conjugates were found to elicit antibodies with greater specificity to the rapamycin molecule than succinate linked conjugates.

The present invention provides immunosuppression compounds capable of inhibiting the programmed cell death 1 (PD1) signalling pathway. The present invention further provides peptide based compositions for treatment of cancer or treatment of infections via immunopotentiation caused by inhibition of immunosuppressive signaling induced by PD-1, PD-L1, or PD-L2 and therapies using them, immunopotentiative substrates included as the active ingredient. Further, the invention provides an application of the compositions containing the peptide moieties for preventive and/or therapeutic agents for cancer, cancer metastasis, immunodeficiency, an infectious disease or the like and an application of peptide moieties as a testing or diagnostic agent or a research agent for such a disease.

Methods of preventing and/or treating UV-induced immunosuppression by administration of immune response modifier compounds are disclosed herein. Suitable immune response modifier compounds include agonists of one or more TLRs.

This invention provides an anti-HLA-DR monoclonal antibody. This invention relates to an antibody binding to HLA-DR or a functional fragment thereof having (a) life-extending effects in nonhuman animals bearing HLA-DR-expressing cancer cells and (b) activity of suppressing immune responses lower than that of L243, or an antibody binding to HLA-DR or a functional fragment thereof exhibiting immunosuppressive activity equivalent to or higher than that of the mouse anti-HLA-DR monoclonal antibody L243 (ATCC HB-55).

The invention includes genetically modified dendritic cells expressing at least two immunosuppressive molecules. The genetically modified dendritic cells have the ability to induce tolerance. Enhanced tolerogenicity is useful for prolonging survival of a foreign transplant and for treatment of autoimmune diseases.

The present invention relates to health food, health drink, and health supplement. The invention relates to biological compositions comprising yeast cells that can improve the immune functions of animals. The invention also relates to methods for manufacturing the biological compositions, and methods of using the biological compositions to produce a healthful benefit in a subject with immunodeficiency disorders or immunosuppression by promoting activation and proliferation of white blood cells.