MultiCell Immunotherapeutics Data Demonstrates Potential to Prevent Avian Flu
Friday October 21, 9:00 am ET *
Pre-Clinical Mouse Models Show 1,000-fold Reduction in Viral Load in H1N1 Strain
LINCOLN, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 2005--MultiCell Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: MCET - News) announced today that pre-clinical tests conducted by scientists at MultiCell's San Diego laboratories showed that MultiCell Immunotherapeutics, Inc.'s (MCTI's) toll receptor technology was able to reduce pulmonary virus titers by 1,000- fold in the H1N1 strain of flu to barely detectable levels. These results indicate that the technology may be able to reduce viral load in avian influenza. The H5N1 avian flu contains many of the same proteins as the H1N1 strain of flu, so the HINI results are projected to be important to the understanding of developing an immunotherapeutic against avian flu.
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MCTI's toll receptor technology employs double stranded RNA (dsRNA) and targets toll receptors 3,7 and 8. In studies of mouse models, the viral load was reduced by more than 90%. The results of the study showed that more than 100,000 units of pulmonary viral titers were reduced to negligible levels after administration of the immunotherapeutic. The Company plans additional pre-clinical trials to further evaluate the methodology and plans to approach the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct further studies. MultiCell acquired the technology as a result of its acquisition last month of substantially all of the assets of Astral, Inc.
"The pre-clinical results in mouse models support our view that our toll receptor technology may be able to respond to threats posed by agents such as avian influenza. We believe that these results highlight the commercial opportunities for our immunotherapeutics," said Dr. Stephen Chang, President of MultiCell Technologies Inc. "The recent acquisition of the assets of Astral has broadened our intellectual property platform considerably, and provides us with additional promising therapeutic opportunities."