Scientists at Medarex Inc. have demonstrated that thecompany's bispecific antibody may inhibit infection by theAIDS virus in certain cells of the immune system.

Collaborating with researchers at Dartmouth, Nathan Dinces,Medarex's vice president of operations, showed that amolecular combination of two monoclonal antibodies, whichrecognize HIV and a receptor on macrophages, respectively, candiminish replication of the AIDS virus.

In the presence of the bispecific antibody, monocytes andmacrophages grown in the lab with HIV showed markedlyreduced production of the virus compared with cells grownwith HIV but without the antibodies.

In their report, published this week in the Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences, the scientists alsodemonstrated that the Fc receptors on the white blood cellsare not portals for AIDS virus entry, as others have suggested.

Donald Drakeman, Medarex's president and chief executiveofficer, told BioWorld said that the Princeton, N.J., company(NASDAQ:MEDX) plans to start Phase I trials of the antibody in1992.

"We see this useful not only in symptomatic AIDS patients, butalso in HIV-positive people," Drakeman said, "as a way ofreducing virus in the body."

A U.S. patent on the portion of the bispecific antibody thatrecognizes the Fc receptor and that triggers attack on thevirus has issued to the company, Drakeman said. Worldwidepatents are pending. -- Roberta Friedman, Ph.D.

-- Roberta Friedman, Ph.D. Special to BioWorld

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.