GSJ: Received Feb. 27, 2006: http://wbabin.net/saba/saba61.htm

As shown in Figure 1, an important characteristic of an antibody is its ability to crosslink a target with multiple identical epitopes.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have found enormous utility, and hold special promise in the war on cancer. It has been recognized, that under certain circumstances, the efficacy of mAbs would be enhanced if a target protein having only one epitope were crosslinked into an aggregate of more than two targets. The present invention is a proposal to achieve this crosslinking wherein each of two different mAbs is directed to a different epitope of the target protein.

Figure 2 exemplifies the process using two different multiple mAbs and a target present on a cancer cell.

For simplicity only four targets are shown. Conceivably such crosslinking of targets could initiate a cell signaling pathway, or activate complement.

While similar results might be expected from bispecific antibodies, the synthesis of such antibodies is more complex.

Figure 3 presents another interesting means of crosslinking multiple identical target molecules. Therein a target-binding molecule comprising multiple epitopes is first contacted with target, subsequently an antibody recognizing these epitopes is provided. Notice further that targeting different target proteins, using different adaptors with the same epitopes, would allow precise crosslinking of these different target proteins with one mAb.

Conceivably the antibodies the above examples could be conjugated to other molecules such as drugs, toxins or growth factors, and crosslinking could initiate cellular uptake.

While use of the invention in therapeutics is the primary objective, it is also has utility in diagnostics and technology.

If it should be that the above invention is indeed novel, any patentable rights I may have I freely give away. It is hoped that others will honor the invention as delineated by the following claims.

Claims