VANCOUVER - TapImmune Inc. announced in a press release that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued US patent No. 7,378,087, entitled “Method of Enhancing an Immune Response.” The patent claims relate to methods for enhancing the immune response to tumor cells by introducing the TAP molecule into the infected cells. Patent applications are pending on other aspects of the company’s technology.

TAP, or Transporters Associated with Antigen Processing, are proteins responsible for supplying tumor-associated antigens (markers) and viral antigens to the surface of infected cells. Without TAP, the immune system fails to spot rogue cells and the cancerous cells can grow undetected. In the case of virally infected cells, the TAP adjuvant makes the vaccine more effective in its job of educating the immune system to deal with the infectious pathogen.

“This is a great accomplishment for the Company and the scientists who have worked so hard on this technology” said Denis Corin, CEO of TapImmune.  “This patent gives our Company and technology a well protected platform from which to build our cancer therapeutic and target adjuvant vaccines for societal pathogens that are a major cause of death and disease all over the world, and especially in developing countries.”

Cancer vaccines are intended either to treat existing cancers (therapeutic vaccines) or to prevent the development of cancer (prophylactic vaccines).  Prophylactic vaccines are given to healthy individuals to stimulate the immune system to attack viruses that may cause cancer and prevent viral infection. Therapeutic vaccines, which are administered to cancer patients, are designed to treat cancer by stimulating the immune system to recognize and attack human cancer cells without harming normal cells.

“In many cancers, the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) is missing from, or is down-regulated, in the affected cell.  Thus, the immune system is not able to distinguish between normal cells and cancerous cells, effectively hiding the cancer from the immune system. These cancerous cells can progress into tumors that eventually cause mortality in humans affected with the disease,” added Corin.

“TapImmune’s vaccine technology is based on reintroducing TAP, thereby modulating the activity of the antigen processing machinery to increase effective presentation of antigens, or markers, to the immune system. The immune system can use this information to selectively destroy cancerous cells or those infected with pathogens.”

In addition to using TAP as a cancer therapeutic, a paper entitled, “Using the TAP Component of the Antigen-Processing Machinery as a Molecular Adjuvant”, published December 2005, in PLoS Pathogens, has suggested that this new paradigm is applicable to many viruses and could significantly advance the creation of new vaccines and improve those that already exist. It showed that using TAP as an adjuvant to a smallpox vaccine, the TAP augmented vaccine conveyed the same life saving protection with 10,000 times less virus. The application of this TAP vaccine as an adjuvant to a prophylactic vaccine could make some of the world’s most needed vaccines more accessible and more effective.

TapImmune is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of innovative therapeutics and vaccines in the areas of oncology and infectious disease. The company’s lead product, TAP vaccine, performs a key step in moving characteristic markers called antigens to the surfaces of cells.

Source: ag-IP news