Endothelial injury may be induced by numerous means. One clinically relevant situation is endothelial injury caused by balloon injury during percutaneous transluminal coronary balloon angioplasty. This injury causes restenosis, which eventually requires re-intervention. This patent teaches ways of accelerating the healing of the injured tissue by essentially “sticking” the endothelial progenitor cells to the injured endothelium.
In cancer immunology, bispecific antibodies are generated in which one end of the antibody binds to the immune effector cell and the other binds to the cancer. This forcing together of the immune cell and the tumor ends up causing immune activation and if lucky, killing of the tumor.
In this particular patent, the circulating endothelial cell is brought into proximity with injured endothelium through the use of bispecific antibodies that concurrently bind CD34 (on endothelial progenitors) and collagen (on injured endothelium).
View this patent on the USPTO website.
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