Complex Diseases May Yield to Dual-Variable Domain Antibodies

Treatment of complex diseases may have become easier with the development of a technique for the production of antibodies with two different immune activities.

Clinicians have long speculated that for treatment of complex diseases such as autoimmune disorders simultaneous blockade of multiple targets would yield better therapeutic efficacy than inhibition of a single target. However, developing two separate monoclonal antibodies for clinical use as combination therapy has been impractical, owing to regulatory hurdles and cost.

This situation has changed according to a report in the October 14, 2007, online edition of Nature Biotechnology. Investigators at Abbott (Abbott Park, IL, USA), which is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, described the development of a proprietary technology that combined the function and specificity of two or more monoclonal antibodies into one molecular entity that demonstrates drug-like properties and manufacturing feasibility.

Abbott calls the new molecules, which can be engineered from any two monoclonal antibodies while preserving activities of the parental antibodies, "dual-variable domain Ig (DVD-Ig)”. Investigators at Abbott working on autoimmune diseases have already used the DVD-Ig technology to create a single drug candidate that targets multiple disease components, one of which is TNF-alpha, a well-established target in rheumatoid arthritis.

"Combining the specificity of two or more antibodies into one drug has been a significant challenge for researchers looking at next generation biologic therapies,” said senior author Dr.Tariq Ghayur, head of the department of biologics at Abbott. "Abbott's approach is remarkably versatile and efficient in creating a single molecular entity with drug-like properties and the ability to target multiple disease mediators. We are very excited about the doors this opens in drug development across a range of therapeutic areas.”


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