Data to Be Published in the Journal of Immunology Research Support Phosphatidylserine (PS) as a Potential Target in Ebola Infection - Seite 2

"Our goal with this work was to continue exploring the potential of bavituximab in the antiviral arena and in this case, specifically in biodefense applications," said Cyril Empig, Ph.D., associate research director at Peregrine Pharmaceuticals. "With the increased focus on Ebola, there is an opportunity to take advantage of the specificity of bavituximab for Ebola virus and develop therapeutics or treatment regimens that could neutralize the virus. In addition, recently reported genomic sequence variations in EBOV suggest that drugs targeting specific viral non-variant proteins or protein sequences are at risk of failure as a result of virus escape mutations.⁴ We believe that there are advantages to utilizing bavituximab in a treatment regimen against Ebola virus given its great specificity for Ebola virions and Ebola-infected cells, its potential to circumvent the problem of virus escape mutations given that it is targeting a host molecule rather than a virus protein or protein sequence, and the possible role of PS in immunosuppression during Ebola infection.¹ Given these data, we are developing a plan to explore potential applications of bavituximab and PS-targeting antibodies in the treatment of Ebola." 

A link to the provisional manuscript can be found on the front page of the company's website at www.peregrineinc.com

About Bavituximab: A Targeted Immunotherapy
Bavituximab is a first-in-class phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting monoclonal antibody that represents a new approach to treating cancer. To date, bavituximab has been administered to over 600 patients worldwide and appears to be safe and well tolerated. Bavituximab's target, PS, is a highly immunosuppressive lipid molecule usually located inside the membrane of healthy cells, but "flips" and becomes exposed on the outside of virus-infected cells, virus particles themselves, as well as tumor cells and cells that line tumor blood vessels, creating a specific target for anti-viral and anti-cancer treatments. PS-targeting antibodies target and bind to PS and block this immunosuppressive signal potentially enabling the immune system to better recognize and fight tumors and infectious pathogens. Data published in peer-reviewed journals shows that PS-targeting antibodies such as bavituximab mediate important immune-stimulatory changes.^5,6 As part of the SUNRISE trial, bavituximab is being evaluated in a Phase III, global, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of bavituximab plus docetaxel as second-line treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Bavituximab is also currently being evaluated in several solid tumor indications, including breast cancer, liver cancer, rectal cancer and melanoma. For additional information about the SUNRISE trial please visit www.SunriseTrial.com or www.ClinicalTrials.gov using Identifier NCT01999673.