ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp. announced that it hasreceived an exclusive license to a patent on house dust miteallergens from the Western Australia Research Institute forChild Health Ltd. in Perth.

The compounds covered by the patent will fit into ImmuLogic'sAllervax family of products to treat allergy and autoimmunediseases.

The Cambridge, Mass., company's (NASDAQ:IMUL) coretechnology involves "redirecting the immune system's responseto allergens."

In essence, the company has found that it can shut down thebody's allergic cascade by injecting subcutaneously, not thewhole allergen, but a solubilized form of just the peptidicportion that reacts with surface receptors on T cells: the T-cellepitope peptide.

"The antibody response shuts down, T-cell proliferation shutsdown, and T cells stop producing cytokines," explained MalcolmMorville, ImmuLogic's divisional vice president, allergicdiseases, strategic business unit. "The immune system now failsto respond to an incoming allergen," Morville told BioWorld.

ImmuLogic signed a deal in November 1991 with MarionMerrill Dow Inc. to jointly develop ImmuLogic's Allervaxallergy therapeutics, which include CatVax, for allergies to cats,which is in human clinical trials.

-- Jennifer Van Brunt Senior Editor

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