BioWa Announces New Generation of Technology: Potelligent™ RNAi
BioWa is proud to introduce a new version of this revolutionary technology: Potelligent™ RNAi.
(PRWEB) February 5, 2005 -- BioWa has harnessed the ability to create 100%
fucose-free antibodies thereby dramatically enhancing Antigen Dependent Cellular
Cytotoxicity (ADCC), the critical mechanism in anti-tumor activity. Potelligent™
Technology intelligently optimizes potency and clinical potential of your
antibodies. Now, BioWa is proud to introduce a new version of this revolutionary
technology: Potelligent™ RNAi.
Potelligent™ RNAi is a gene knockdown
vector, which converts existing antibody production cells into low-fucose
producers. Potelligent™ RNAi provides constitutive expression of the small
interfering RNA (siRNA), specially designed to knockdown the genes related to
the fucose metabolism pathway in mammalian cells. While having the same basic
properties as the original production cells, the resulting knockdown cell lines
stably produce low-fucose, ADCC-enhanced antibodies. Potelligent™ RNAi is
compatible with most common host cell lines including NS0, SP2/0 and
CHO.
Potelligent™ RNAi saves time and money to optimize your existing
process to produce higher potency antibodies. "There has been a growing demand
from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries for antibody-based
technologies. In order to satisfy this demand BioWa continues to expand our
human antibody technology platform and our product pipeline activities," says
Dr. Nobuo Hanai, President of BioWa. Dr. Hanai continued, “Potelligent RNAi now
enables the ability to enhance the potency and clinical response of current
antibody therapies as well as new therapies in a quick and easy way.”
About Potelligent™ Technology
The human body has an excellent
self-defense mechanism, the immune system where antibodies are created to
protect the body from diseases when foreign organisms like pathogenic bacteria
enter the body. Therapeutic antibodies are based on or are designed to make full
use of the body’s own defense activity. ADCC activity is the most critical
function of the human immune system. With this activity, white blood cells such
as NK cells and monocytes kill target cells like cancer cells. ADCC activity is
the major anticancer mechanism of already launched therapeutic antibodies on the
market today. Enhancing this activity is the spotlight worldwide as the
next-generation antibody technology.
Potelligent™ Technology involves
the complete elimination of fucose from the carbohydrate structure of an
antibody. Potelligent™ derived antibodies enhance antibody performance overall.
Studies have shown that Potelligent™ cells enhance antigen-dependent cellular
cytotoxicity up to 100 fold in vitro. The benefits of Potelligent™ derived
antibodies is greater tumor cell killing activity than with conventional
antibodies, potential for an expanded base of responding patients, reduced side
effects with decreased dose requirements, and no change in key clinical
parameters, i.e., selectivity, pharmacokinetics, and immunogenicity. Research
shows that Potelligent™ Technology dramatically enhances binding affinity to the
Fc receptor.
Potelligent™ Technology is an easy fit with conventional
production and purification methods. Due to the effectiveness of the technology,
production costs and capacity requirements decrease.
About BioWa,
Inc.
BioWa is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co, Ltd, Japan’s
leading pharmaceutical and largest biotech company. BioWa is the exclusive
worldwide licensor of Potelligent™ Technology. Potelligent™ Technology creates
high antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) monoclonal antibodies. ADCC
is a critical function of the immune system that enhances the ability of
antibodies to kill tumor cells. The enhancement of ADCC is seen up to 100 fold
in vitro. Both BioWa and Kyowa Hakko are currently developing ADCC enhanced
monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics to fight cancer and other life
threatening and debilitating diseases in various clinical stages. BioWa creates
and develops enhanced ADCC antibodies for itself and others, offering a full
range of antibody discovery and development capabilities.
For more
information about BioWa visit its web site at www.biowa.com.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb205331.htm