Fertilizing a Patient Engagement Ecosystem to Innovate Healthcare: .

Currently we observe a gap between theory and practices of patient engagement. If both scholars and health practitioners do agree on the urgency to realize patient engagement, no shared guidelines exist so far to orient clinical practice. Despite a supportive policy context, progress to achieve greater patient engagement is patchy and slow and often concentrated at the level of policy regulation without dialoguing with practitioners from the clinical field as well as patients and families.

A second-generation enzyme immunoassay for detection of antibodies to IFN-alpha.

We have developed a solid-phase enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) for detecting antibodies to interferon-alpha2 (IFN-alpha2) in serum or plasma. In this assay, based on the sandwich principle, the capture antigen, IFN-alpha2, is covalently bound to the wells in 96-well plates. This novel procedure offers considerable advantages over the antigen binding by passive adsorption used in most previous EIA.

Interferon immunogenicity: preclinical evaluation of interferon-alpha 2a.

A preclinical evaluation of the immunogenicity of various preparations of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) was performed with in vitro and in vivo animal models. The distribution of genes for IFN-alpha 2a, IFN-alpha 2b, and IFN-alpha 2c in various cell populations and the response of human T cell clones to IFN-alpha peptides were investigated. The immunogenicity of IFN-alpha in IFN-alpha 2b transgenic mice and factors that influence the immunogenicity of IFN-alpha in normal mice were also studied.

Positional isomers of monopegylated interferon alpha-2a: isolation, characterization, and biological activity.

The success of recombinant interferon alpha in the clinic in part is limited by two properties of the protein: short serum half-life and immunogenicity. To improve these properties, interferon alpha-2a was conjugated with polyethylene glycol (PEG-5000). A homogeneous preparation of monopegylated interferon alpha-2a was subjected to vigorous analytical and activity characterization.

Antitumor activity of interleukin 12 in preclinical models.

Interleukin 12 (IL-12) is a heterodimeric cytokine with a number of biological effects that are consistent with its potential role as an antitumor agent. The antimetastatic and antitumor activities of IL-12 have been demonstrated in a number of murine tumor models. Both the inhibition of established experimental pulmonary or hepatic metastases and a reduction in spontaneous metastases have been achieved by treatment with murine IL-12.