IMAGNA to develop therapeutic vaccine against cat fibrosarcoma
24 September 2007 The IMAGNA consortium is to study the usefulness of
therapeutic tumour vaccination by magnetofection technology in a clinical
study in cats with fibrosarcoma. Magnetofection is a novel method for cell
transfection. The proprietary technology, which has been developed by
members of the IMAGNA project, is based on gene vectors associated with
super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The resulting molecular
complexes are then transported into cells supported by an appropriate
magnetic field. Nearly 100% of the cells in the specified location receive a
significant vector dose, resulting in high transfection rates and up to
several thousand-fold increased transgene expression levels.
The technology necessitates extremely low vector doses and is
accomplished in very short time, ie a few minutes, making it a valuable tool
for gene therapy. The technology, which was developed with funding from the
German Ministry of Education and Research, is available commercially.
Standard therapy for cat fibrosarcoma is surgical removal. However, the
tumour recurs in 75% of the patients within one year. The IMAGNA team has
used magnetofection to guide cytokine genes directly into the tumour prior
to surgical excision. The idea was that the cytokine expression within the
tumour mass might activate the immune system against the tumour so that
tumour cells missed by the surgical procedure would be killed. Preliminary
results indicate that anti cancer immune therapy with Magnetofection reduces
the relapse of cat fibrosarcoma from 75% to nearly 40%. The additional
studies are intended to confirm and extend the promising preliminary results
and to take initial steps towards a future drug approval, firstly for
veterinary medicine. IMAGNA (immuno gene therapy with magnetic
nanoparticles) was founded by members of the Institute of Experimental
Oncology Klinikum rechts der Isar (Technical University, Munich), the Clinic
of Small Animal Medicine of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Munich),
Bayer Schering Pharma AG (Berlin), chemicell GmbH (Berlin), and
PlasmidFactory GmbH & Co. KG (Bielefeld). The consortium is supported by a
grant from the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) The
partners contribute to the project with their different competences in the
field of veterinary medicine, therapeutic anticancer vaccination, DNA
production, gene transfer and targeting, pharmaceutical manufacturing and
regulation. To top
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