Member Info for RayPointer

I too had my doubts about whether Lindy would enter the Covid-19 field.
I am happy to be proved wrong. Well done Lindy :-)
The approach looks interesting using Lindy's expertise in both TCells (presumably CD4/CD8 ) and also throwing mABs into the arena. I wonder if Avidimab has a role to play.
I wonder how long it will take the market to realise that Scancell also has a few other products that may be of interest.

Have a great day C7.
I assume my piece of cake is in the post!

One area where the government has not been slow is the research for treatments and vaccines.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/worlds-largest-trial-of-potential-coronavirus-treatments-rolled-out-across-the-uk

It is nice to see this trial being led by acedemia (Oxford Uni).

https://www.recoverytrial.net/

Note this trial is not aimed at producing a vaccine, but aims to test the most promising existing drugs or combinations to aid recovery.

You had to pedal though

And don't forget air pollution contributing to premature death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution_in_the_United_Kingdom

"Air pollution in the United Kingdom has long been considered a significant health issue. Many areas, including major cities like London are found to be significantly and regularly above legal and recommended levels. Air pollution in the UK is a major cause of diseases such as asthma, lung disease, stroke, and heart disease, and is estimated to cause forty thousand premature deaths each year, which is about 8.3% of deaths, while costing around £40 billion each year."

Ironically, air pollution levels are dropping during the CV19 lockdown.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-lockdowns-air-pollution

Looks like somebody using limit trade buys at 5p or less.

His wife always makes sure she has a tin of magnolia paint handy

Hi Chester

Well we just don't what's still continuing and what isn't.

Here's a list to debate

SCIB1 combo trial - assume this is halted in both Nottingham and US
SCIB2 - are CRUK cracking on with development and what stage is it now at?
Moditope manufacture - is the work to create the 3rd conjugate continuing and what stage is it at?
The 3 collaborations on the glycans mabs - have these been impacted by the Covid19 crisis?
Are these 3 collaborators also looking at Avidimab for mabs other than Scancell's glycans mabs?
Is the Biontech collaboration progressing and what stage is it at? (are Scancell going to fill that vacant slot for TCR)

We don't even know if Scancell are still doing lab work both for research and also for development.

Well I'm guessing that work is still ongoing to test the specific antibodies that are best to test for in the case of Covid19.
As I understand it the igg/igm test was developed for SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies.
I would say the UK scientific advisors are saying these may not be the best antibodies to test for in the case of Covid-19.

This article is more about finding a cure but it is probably also relevant to finding a reliable antibody test.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-china-scientists/chinese-scientists-seeking-potential-covid-19-treatment-find-effective-antibodies-idUKKBN21J4R2

"In early January, Zhang’s team and a group at the 3rd People’s Hospital in Shenzhen began analysing antibodies from blood taken from recovered COVID-19 patients, isolating 206 monoclonal antibodies which showed what he described as a “strong” ability to bind with the virus’ proteins."

Thanks for the link Ivy.

There's certainly a lot of organisations working on vaccines with a variety of approaches.
5 trials already registered.
Innovio and Moderna are already recruiting for their trials.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04336410?term=inovio&cond=covid-19&draw=2&rank=1

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04283461?term=vaccine&cond=covid-19&draw=2

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52232381

They even use pizza boxes to deliver the much needed masks

Crumbs
Have you tried this

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8104031/Italian-man-wears-GIANT-disk-extreme-attempt-enforce-social-distancing-Rome.html

Not to be confused with the football overpass

https://thisisnotadvertising.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/tbwaberlin-for-adidas-a-giant-case-history/oliver-kahn-poster-presentation/

https://www.sinobiological.com/resource/cytokines/cytokine-function

Cytotines are diverse and provide many functions but are broadly concerned with mediating between different type of cells making up the immune system.
So, disabling one type of cytokine is potentially a dangerous thing to do.

Turning our attention to Moditope.
Interferon gamma (IFN?) is another cytokine that plays an important role in how Moditope kills cancer cells

https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/publications/papers/brentville-et-al-2019.pdf

From the abstract

" Since most tumours do not constitutively express
MHC class II molecules, models were engineered that expressed MHC class II under the control of an
IFN? inducible promoter. Immunisation with citrullinated peptides resulted in 90% survival (p < 0.001)
against established B16 HHD tumour expressing IFN? inducible DP4. These studies show that citrullinated peptides can be presented by a range of MHC class II molecules, including for the first time HLADP4, and are strong targets for anti-tumour immunity."

To me, this roughly translated means that the moditope activated CD4+ cytotoxic cells express IFN? in large quantities. One of the consequences is that the IFN? causes the tumour cell to express MHC class II molecules which present the citrullinated peptides that is the target to which the CD4+ cells bind.

Again from the abstract

"These studies show that citrullinated peptides can be presented by a range of MHC class II molecules, including for the first time HLADP4, and are strong targets for anti-tumour immunity."

So, it seems that one of the crucial aspects of Moditope is this release of IFN?. In fact, it very much looks like it is essential.

https://www.tizianalifesciences.com/news-item?s=2020-04-09-tiziana-life-sciences-develops-novel-investigational-treatment-for-patients-infected-with-covid-19-utilizing-direct-delivery-of-anti-interlukin-6-receptor-monoclonal-antibodies

"TZLS-501, a fully human mAb, was acquired from Novimmune, a Swiss biotechnology company, in 2017. The cytokine, IL-6, a major determinant in the priming of pathogenic T cells to produce an inflammatory response, binds to its receptor subunit IL-6Ra on the cell membrane. The receptor IL-6Ra can be shed as a soluble sIL6Ra, which binds to circulating IL-6 cytokine in the blood. The downstream signaling from which sIL-6R is implicated mediates pro-inflammatory effect underlying the inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The Company believes that the novel features of TZLS-501 consisting of its dual mechanism of action to inhibit signaling by the membrane-bound and soluble IL-6 receptor and the rapid depletion of circulating IL-6 cytokines, which is the major cause of lung damage, provides this mAb with distinct advantages for treatment of COVD-19. The Company licensed TZLS-501 from Novimmune, a Swiss biotechnology company, in 2017."

So, it looks like this mab is aimed at inhibiting the effect of the IL-6 cytokine which is believed to be one of the major causes of death in Covid-19 patients.

Here's another article that supports that approach

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/07/828091467/why-some-covid-19-patients-crash-the-bodys-immune-system-might-be-to-blame

but, a word of caution

""These drugs are phenomenally effective for rheumatologic conditions," he says. But blocking the immune system's communications network as the coronavirus mounts an attack could have unintended consequences."

Keith Starmer did try to escape the Islington Marxist inner circle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-IkWpm7TS0

From the Scancell website

https://www.scancell.co.uk/avidimab

"When Scancell’s anti-glycan mouse mAbs were humanised for clinical use they lost their ability to kill tumour cells directly. Scancell has now patent protected a technology platform (AvidiMab™) which increases the avidity of human antibodies by promoting non-covalent Fc-Fc interactions. This modification reinstates the direct tumour cell killing ability of the anti-glycan humanised mAbs but could also be used to increase the potency of any human mAb and is available for licensing."

Morning Knowlesi
I merely pointing out Lindy's belief is that Avidimab is independent of what the mAB is setting out to do. Its function is to enhance the avidity of any mAB via binding of the Fc regions of adjacent mAB molecules.
As such Lindy believes that this particular Fc technology can be applied to any mAB to enhance its avidity. It is independant of the function of the mAB.
Nothing to do with Covid-19 specifically which is probably being addressed using different approaches, mABs being one of them.
All IMHO.

Yes, you are correct Knowlesi.
The 3 collaborations are for the cancer related mABs targeting glycans commonly expressed by certain cancers.

It is speculation whether or not Scancell are also trying to attract more collaborations based on applying Avidimab to other mABs - whether related to cancer or not. But that does seem to be a possibility.

3 collaborations not deals.
But IMO , if the 3 companies like what they see, there may be competition to complete each collaboration ASAP.
Let's hope Covid-19 research is not getting in the way of these 3 companies' work plans.

Also remember Avidimab can, in theory, be applied to any mAB.
So Holloway should be on the lookout for deals such as that of GSK and Vir and try to get in on the act.
High avidity must be on the agenda for any mAB development, you would have thought.