Use as a Vaccine Adjuvant
Vaccines work, in part, by inducing the production of antibodies that recognize
invading organisms. Used as a vaccine adjuvant, BLyS may enhance the
effectiveness of a wide range of vaccine candidates by strengthening the immune
response through its ability to stimulate B cell production.
Treatment of B Cell Leukemia and Lymphoma
The discovery of a new growth factor specific for B cells may also lead to new
treatments for leukemias and lymphomas that arise from abnormal proliferation of
B cells. BLyS interacts with a specific structure on the surface of B cells
called a receptor. Drugs that interfere with binding of BLyS to this receptor
may kill or at least slow the growth of B cell tumors.
The Discovery of BLyS
BLyS represents the successful application of a new systematic, multi-step
approach to drug discovery pioneered by HGS scientists. The first step of this
process was to isolate and characterize a virtually complete set of human genes.
A task completed at HGS by the end of 1995. The second step was to prepare a
subset of human genes, those involved in cell to cell communication for analysis
of their potential medical use. Each of these genes is available at HGS as a
cDNA capable of producing a full-length protein. The next step in the process
was to develop a high throughput system to test the biological function and
potential medical utility of each of these proteins. Such a system is now in
place at HGS. BLyS, one of the body's signaling molecules was fo
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Contact: Kate de Santis
Kate_de_Santis@hgsi.com
301-251-6003
Human Genome Sciences, Inc.
9-Jul-1999