Donald P Sheppard

US Patent:

8541008, Sep 24, 2013

Filed:

Sep 13, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/245802

Inventors:

Scott G. Filler - Rancho Palos Verdes CA, US
Donald C. Sheppard - Marina Del Rey CA, US
Ashraf S. Ibrahim - Playa Del Rey CA, US
Yue Fu - La Habra CA, US
Bradley J. Spellberg - Ranchos Palos Verdes CA, US

Assignee:

Los Angeles BioMedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center - Torrance CA

International Classification:

A61K 39/00
A61K 49/00
A61K 38/00
C07K 1/00

US Classification:

4242741, 4241851, 4241841, 424 92, 514 11, 530824, 530350, 530300

Abstract:

A bloodstream infections cause significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. Filament formation and adherence to host cells are critical virulence factors of. Multiple filamentation regulatory pathways have been discovered, however the downstream effectors of these regulatory pathways remain unknown. The cell surface proteins in the ALS group are downstream effectors of the filamentation regulatory pathway. Particularly, Als1p mediates adherence to endothelial cells in vitro and is required for virulence. The blocking of adherence by the organism is described resulting from the use of a composition and method disclosed herein. Specifically, a pharmaceutical composition comprised of a gene, gene product, or specific antibody to the ALS gene family is administered as a vaccine to generate an immune response capable of blocking adherence of the organism.