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Technology Overview

OHSU # 1508 — PD-1 Modulation and Uses Therof

Value Proposition:  New tools for use in modulating and diagnosing PD-1-associated processes in various diseases from HIV and HCV to cancer and autoimmune disease. 

Technology Overview: Programmed death-1 (PD-1), a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily, is highly upregulated on activated lymphocytes and monocytes.  It interacts with two know ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2.  Increased PD-1 function leads to CD4 and CD8 T cell dysfunction in viral infections, such HIV and HCV, infections and tumor escape.  Decreased PD-1 function leads to a disruption of tolerance and induction of autoimmune diseases and graft rejection.  PD-1 therefore represents a new therapeutic target and there is a critical need for reagents, kits and methods for modulating the PD-1-associated processes.

This technology provides a list of genes/proteins/signal transduction pathways that can be used to predict PD-1 function.  These lists are valuable tools to evaluate the exact immunological status of patients with cancer, autoimmune diseases or viral infections such as HIV and HCV.  The invention consists also of a simple assay that can be used to screen hundreds of thousands of molecules in order to identify an inhibitor of PD-1-mediated immune dysfunction.

The PD-1 BioTools comprise the “PD-1 Signature Profile” which is a list of genes, proteins and pathways involved, and a simple cell-based assay to study the effect of a therapy on the PD-1 pathway and therefore, the immune response.  The PD-1 BioTools can be useful during clinical trials of therapeutic vaccines for cancer and autoimmune diseases, diagnostic and prognostic tools in predictive medicine, and for the screening of small molecules to interfere with the PD-1 pathway.

Stage of Development:  The screening assay is already available and ready for high throughput screening scale up.  The diagnostic/prognostic assay is at the pre-clinical stage.

Market Summary:  Worldwide…7.6 million people died from cancer in 2008, 33 million people are HIV positive and 170 million people are HCV positive.  Therefore, when the various applications for the PD-1 BioTools are taken together, the commercial pharmaceutical potential for the PD-1 BioTools is billions of dollars.

Inventor Profile:  Rafick-Pierre Sékaly, Ph.D. was the Co-Director and Scientific Director for the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida.  He is one of the world’s leading scientists in AIDS research, human immunology and immunotherapy.  His research has resulted in the publication of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, and in more than 20 patents.  He also serves as scientific director for the National Laboratory of Immune Monitoring — a collaboration between the University of Montreal and a major pharmaceutical company -- and INSERM Unit 743 in Human Immunology, which is a unit of France’s major scientific funding organization.  Prior to coming to VGTI Florida, he served as scientific director of basic research and strategic planning and director of the Laboratory of Microbiology and Immunology at the Research Center of the University of Montreal Hospital Center.  In 1984, the University of Lausanne in Switzerland awarded Dr. Sékaly his doctorate in biochemistry. He went on to perform his postdoctoral fellowship there on immunogenetics and molecular biology.

 

Elias K. Haddad, Ph.D., is an associate member and principal investigator of the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida. He’s an expert in viral disease development, and studies the immediate and long-term human immune response to chronic and emerging infectious diseases.  Prior to joining VGTI Florida, Dr. Haddad was a senior research scientist at the University of Montreal.  Dr. Haddad earned his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and master’s degree in immunology from American University of Beirut. He earned his doctorate in immunology at McGill University, and conducted post-doctoral work at the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health.

 

Links/Publications:  Nat Med. 2010 Apr;16(4):452-9. Epub 2010 Mar 7. 

Curr Opin HIV AIDS. 2007 May;2(3):219-227. 

Nat Med. 2006 Oct;12(10):1198-202. Epub 2006 Aug 20.

 

Licensing Opportunity:  OHSU Case #1508 is available for exclusive or non-exclusive licensing.

 

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Issued United States 8,647,822

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