L.E.A.P.S. Technology Shows Protection In Animal Model.(Brief Article)

2002 FEB 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Dr. Daniel Zimmerman, CEL-SCI Corporation presented evidence at the SMi "Anti-Inflammatory Therapeutics" Conference in London, U.K., that administration of a proprietary peptide based on CEL-SCI's L.E.A.P.S. technology has prevented the development of, and lessened the severity of the inflammation associated with experimental autoimmune myocarditis in mice.

Autoimmune myocarditis, an autoimmune disease affecting the heart muscle, is caused by an attack on the patient's heart muscle by his/her own immune cells and antibodies. Myocarditis is a precursor to dilated cardiomyopathy which is an end stage cardiac disease usually requiring a heart transplant. The incidence of dilated cardiomyopathy is about 200,000 people in the United States alone. The current treatments are not curative.

The work presented was performed in conjunction with CEL-SCI scientists by scientists at the laboratory of Noel Rose, MD, PhD, professor of pathology and medicine at the department of pathology, the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland. Rose is an expert in animal modeling of autoimmune diseases.

Modern anti-inflammatory agents (e.g. monoclonal antibodies or solubilized receptors binding with inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and cell surface molecules) have been reported to be successful in some inflammatory conditions, but are not disease specific. To date, however, these treatments have not been successful in treating myocarditis.

Zimmerman reported that, in the study presented, anti-inflammatory cytokines are induced by injection of a L.E.A.P.S. peptide and may offer another approach that is more disease (antigen) specific. Potentially even more important to the field of immunotherapeutic research is the finding that the L.E.A.P.S. peptides linking a peptide (called a T-cell Binding Ligand) to a disease related antigen, such as cardiac myosin epitope, may have application for other autoimmune related conditions involving inflammation such as rheumatoid arthritis.