Structural insights and biomedical potential of IgNAR scaffolds from sharks

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

In Vitro ELISA and Cell-Based Assays Confirm the Low Immunogenicity of VNAR Therapeutic Constructs in a Mouse Model of Human RA : An Encouraging Milestone to Further Clinical Drug Development

Funding Information: The authors wish to acknowledge the funding support for this work from Scottish Enterprise (SE) (VNAR_001 (2012)), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (BB/K010905/1), and Innovate UK (102865).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Isolation of highly selective IgNAR variable single-domains against a human therapeutic Fc scaffold and their application as tailor-made bioprocessing reagents

Funding This work was supported by the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, and Merck KGaA. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Iris Willenbücher and Kerstin Hallstein for the BIAcore™ analysis and Nadine Barron for the bio-layer interferometry work.Peer reviewedPostprin

Novel, Anti-hTNF-α Variable New Antigen Receptor Formats with Enhanced Neutralising Potency and Multifunctionality, Generated for Therapeutic Development

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors wish to acknowledge the funding support for this work from MSD/Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA), Scottish Enterprise, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and the University of Aberdeen. FUNDING Grateful for support from Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K010905/1), Scottish Enterprise [VNAR_001 (2012)], Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance/ MSD (MSD01_A_Porter-Teismann), and the College of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Aberdeen (Fee bursary to OU).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Targeting liver myofibroblasts: a novel approach in anti-fibrogenic therapy

Chronic liver disease results in a liver-scarring response termed fibrosis. Excessive scarring leads to cirrhosis, which is associated with high morbidity and mortality. The only treatment for liver cirrhosis is liver transplantation; therefore, much attention has been directed toward therapies that will slow or reverse fibrosis. Although anti-fibrogenic therapies have been shown to be effective in experimental animal models, licensed therapies have yet to emerge. A potential problem for any anti-fibrogenic therapy in the liver is the existence of the body’s major drug metabolising cell (the hepatocyte) adjacent to the primary fibrosis-causing cell, the myofibroblast. This article reviews the development of a human recombinant single-chain antibody (scAb) that binds to the surface of myofibroblasts. This antibody binds specifically to myofibroblasts in fibrotic mouse livers. When conjugated with a compound that stimulates myofibroblast apoptosis, the antibody directs the specific apoptosis of myofibroblasts with greater specificity and efficacy than the free compound. The antibody also reduces the adverse effect of liver macrophage apoptosis and—in contrast to the free compound—reversed fibrosis in the sustained injury model used. These data suggest that specifically stimulating the apoptosis of liver myofibroblasts using a targeting antibody has potential in the treatment of liver fibrosis

An Anti-hTNF-α Variable New Antigen Receptor Format Demonstrates Superior in vivo Preclinical Efficacy to Humira® in a Transgenic Mouse Autoimmune Polyarthritis Disease Model

Funding The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K010905/1), Scottish Enterprise (VNAR_001 (2012), Innovate UK (102865). Acknowledgments The authors wish to acknowledge the funding support for this work from Scottish Enterprise (SE), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and Innovate UK.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

In Vitro Maturation of a Humanized Shark VNAR Domain to Improve Its Biophysical Properties to Facilitate Clinical Development

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support for this work from Scottish Enterprise [VNAR_001(2012)] and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K010905/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Uveitis Therapy With Shark Variable Novel Antigen Receptor Domains Targeting Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha or Inducible T-Cell Costimulatory Ligand

Acknowledgments Supported by an unrestricted departmental grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (New York, NY), NEI K08EY023998 (KLP), P30-EY001730 (RVG; Bethesda, MD), by a grant from Elasmogen Limited (RVG), and with support from the Mark J. Daily, MD Research Fund (RVG, KLP).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The holistic perspective of the INCISIVE Project: artificial intelligence in screening mammography

Finding new ways to cost-effectively facilitate population screening and improve cancer diagnoses at an early stage supported by data-driven AI models provides unprecedented opportunities to reduce cancer related mortality. This work presents the INCISIVE project initiative towards enhancing AI solutions for health imaging by unifying, harmonizing, and securely sharing scattered cancer-related data to ensure large datasets which are critically needed to develop and evaluate trustworthy AI models. The adopted solutions of the INCISIVE project have been outlined in terms of data collection, harmonization, data sharing, and federated data storage in compliance with legal, ethical, and FAIR principles. Experiences and examples feature breast cancer data integration and mammography collection, indicating the current progress, challenges, and future directions.This research received funding mainly from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no 952179. It was also partially funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness of Spain under contracts PID2019-107255GB and 2017-SGR-1414.Peer ReviewedArticle signat per 30 autors/es: Ivan Lazic (1), Ferran Agullo (2), Susanna Ausso (3), Bruno Alves (4), Caroline Barelle (4), Josep Ll. Berral (2), Paschalis Bizopoulos (5), Oana Bunduc (6), Ioanna Chouvarda (7), Didier Dominguez (3), Dimitrios Filos (7), Alberto Gutierrez-Torre (2), Iman Hesso (8), Nikša Jakovljević (1), Reem Kayyali (8), Magdalena Kogut-Czarkowska (9), Alexandra Kosvyra (7), Antonios Lalas (5) , Maria Lavdaniti (10,11), Tatjana Loncar-Turukalo (1),Sara Martinez-Alabart (3), Nassos Michas (4,12), Shereen Nabhani-Gebara (8), Andreas Raptopoulos (6), Yiannis Roussakis (13), Evangelia Stalika (7,11), Chrysostomos Symvoulidis (6,14), Olga Tsave (7), Konstantinos Votis (5) Andreas Charalambous (15) / (1) Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia; (2) Barcelona Supercomputing Center, 08034 Barcelona, Spain; (3) Fundació TIC Salut Social, Ministry of Health of Catalonia, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; (4) European Dynamics, 1466 Luxembourg, Luxembourg; (5) Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece; (6) Telesto IoT Solutions, London N7 7PX, UK: (7) School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; (8) Department of Pharmacy, Kingston University London, London KT1 2EE, UK; (9) Timelex BV/SRL, 1000 Brussels, Belgium; (10) Nursing Department, International Hellenic University, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece; (11) Hellenic Cancer Society, 11521 Athens, Greece; (12) European Dynamics, 15124 Athens, Greece; (13) German Oncology Center, Department of Medical Physics, Limassol 4108, Cyprus; (14) Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, 18534 Piraeus, Greece; (15) Department of Nursing, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol 3036, CyprusPostprint (published version