Method for treatment of cancer and infectious disease and compositions useful in same

US6331299A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research · US

Inventors

• James Rothman · Westhampton, US
• F. Ulrich Hartl · Munich, DE
• Mee Hoe · Dobbs Ferry, US
• Alan Houghton · New York, US
• Yoshizumi Takeuchi · Kobe, JP
• Mark Mayhew · New York, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 13, 1998
• Grant date: Dec 18, 2001
• Expiry date: Feb 13, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A61K2039/625
• WIPO field: Pharmaceuticals
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

Administration of expressible polynucleotides encoding eukaryotic heat shock proteins to mammalian cells leads to the stimulation of an immune response to antigens present in those cells. This makes it possible to stimulate an immune response to target antigens, including target tumor antigens or antigens associated with an infectious disease, without having to isolate a unique antigen or antigen-associated with an infectious disease, without having to isolate a unique antigen or antigen-associated heat shock protein for each target antigen by administering to a mammalian subject or to a group of mammalian cells containing the antigen, an expressible polynucleotide encoding a heat shock protein. The expressed heat shock protein may have the same structure as native heat shock proteins, or may have a modified form adapted to control the trafficking of the expressed heat shock protein within the cells.