CytoDyn Inc. (the "Company") (CYDY), a biotechnology company focused on
the development of new therapies for combating infection with immune
deficiency viruses, announced today that it is presenting an update on
its Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) therapeutic antibody program at
the 19th West Coast Retrovirus meeting in Palm Springs, California. Dr.
Richard Trauger, CytoDyn's Chief Scientific Officer, will present a
poster titled "Influence of anti-LFA-1 on FIV infection ex vivo and in
vivo," describing new preliminary findings regarding CytoFeline™, a
feline reactive monoclonal antibody targeting the cell antigen CD11a
under development by CytoDyn for the treatment of feline
immunodeficiency virus. The work was performed in the laboratories of
Dr. John Elder, Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbial
Science at Scripps Research Institute, and Dr. Sue VandeWoude, DVM
Associate Dean for Research, CVMBS Professor of Comparative Medicine,
DMIP Colorado State University.
Dr. Elder's work, which has been previously reported, demonstrated that
feline reactive antibodies to a normal cell protein known as CD11a could
inhibit FIV infection of susceptible target cells. Based on these
results, a pilot study measuring the effect of a single dose of
CytoFeline in FIV infected cats was performed in the laboratory of Dr.
VandeWoude.
"Our preliminary findings suggest that a single administration of
anti-LFA-1 antibodies to FIV infected cats results in the activation of
viral replication followed by a drop to levels slightly below those of
placebo control treated animals, with one animal eventually becoming
undetectable for FIV. All treated animals returned to control levels by
the end of the study," said Dr. VandeWoude. "In addition, treated
animals demonstrated a transient significant rise in CD8 and CD4 cells
without a concomitant rise in proviral DNA. These results, while
preliminary, are very interesting. Further work needs to be done to
understand the relationship between the viral and hematological
parameters measured in this study."
"We believe that CD11a remains an interesting target for the treatment
of FIV infection," said Dr. Trauger. "These preliminary findings
highlight the need to explore the activity of anti-LFA-1 antibodies as
therapeutics for the treatment of FIV infection in larger studies using
multiple doses. We currently are exploring options to create chimeric
feline antibodies suitable for multiple dosing to further test this
hypothesis, and are happy to announce that a grant of $27,000 dollars
has been awarded to Dr. VandeWoude and CytoDyn from Colorado State
University to allow us to continue this research project."
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