Murine Monoclonal Antibodies Effective To Treat Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Available for licensing through a Biological Materials License Agreement are the murine MAbs described in Beeler et al, "Neutralization epitopes of the F glycoprotein of respiratory syncytial virus: effect of mutation upon fusion function," J Virol. 1989 Jul;63(7):2941-2950 (PubMed abs). The MAbs that are available for licensing are the following: 1129, 1153, 1142, 1200, 1214, 1237, 1112, 1269, and 1243. One of these MAbs, 1129, is the basis for a humanized murine MAb (see U.S. Patent 5,824,307 to humanized 1129 owned by MedImmune, Inc.), recently approved for marketing in the United States. MAbs in the panel reported by Beeler et al. have been shown to be effective therapeutically when administered into the lungs of cotton rats by small-particle aerosol. Among these MAbs several exhibited a high affinity (approximately 10⁹M^-1) for the RSV F glycoprotein and are directed at epitopes encompassing amino acid 262, 272, 275, 276 or 389. These epitopes are separate, nonoverlapping and distinct from the epitope recognized by the human Fab of U.S. Patent 5,762,905 owned by The Scripps Research Institute.