Antibodies to Complex Receptors

描述（由申请人提供）：ViraCore是一家生物技术公司，正在开发一种药物发现工具，能够以纳米大小的颗粒形式呈现复杂受体。具体来说，ViraCore正在使用“脂质颗粒”，一种被脂质双分子层包围并嵌入膜结合受体的纳米级颗粒，从细胞表面纯化和溶解复杂受体，同时保持其结构完整性。本研究的目的是利用脂粒制备针对膜结合受体构象复合物表位的单克隆抗体。我们将靶向的许多受体和表位很难，或者在某些情况下，不可能使用传统方法靶向，包括激活的受体构象和细胞内结构。脂粒为开发重要的新型抗体和候选疫苗提供了一种独特的技术。这一建议主要集中在趋化因子受体抗体，一类膜结合受体参与艾滋病毒感染，艾滋病发病机制和免疫。然而，这一建议的结果可能对针对各种复杂受体的抗体、疫苗和疗法的发展产生广泛的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): ViraCore is a biotechnology company that is creating a drug discovery tool that is capable of presenting complex receptors in a nanometer-sized particle format. Specific ally, ViraCore is using "lipoparticles", nanometer -sized particles surrounded by a lipid bilayer and embedded with membrane-bound receptors, to purify and solubilize complex receptors from the cell surface while maintaining their structuraI integrity. The purpose of this proposal is to use lipoparticles to develop monoclonal antibodies directed to conformationally complex epitopes of membrane- bound receptors. Many of the receptors and epitopes that we will target are difficult or, in some cases, impossible to target using traditional methods, including activated receptor conformations and intracellular structures. Lipoparticles present a unique technology for the development of important new classes of antibodies and vaccine candidates. This proposal focuses principally on antibodies to chemokine receptors, a class of membrane-bound receptors involved in HIV infection, AIDS pathogenesis, and immunity. However, the results of this proposal can have a broad impact on the development of antibodies, vaccines, and therapeutics against a wide variety of complex receptors.