Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
PR Newswire, 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019 - 30 Sep 1996
An essential step in the HIV life cycle is entry, which is dependent on attachment and fusion, the two critical events that lead to the delivery of the viral genetic information into the target cell. Progenics developed ProSys to detect viral fusion by means of a rapid, automated, and highly sensitive assay that does not use infectious HIV.
"The results published in the Journal of Virology represent the culmination of extensive HIV-related development work at Progenics," said Paul J. Maddon, M.D., Ph.D., Progenics' Chairman and CEO. "ProSys is a useful tool which is expected to aid Progenics' efforts to discover and develop novel products to treat HIV infection."
ProSys was developed by a team of scientists at Progenics under the direction of Graham P. Allaway, Ph.D., Associate Scientific Director and Head, Therapeutic Development Group, and senior author on the paper. The ProSys system measures fusion of two plasma membranes labeled with fluorescent dyes which express either the HIV envelope glycoprotein or the CD4 receptor together with a fusion accessory receptor. Fusion results in the close association of the dyes in the plasma membranes and is detected by the transfer of energy between the dyes. This technique is called resonance energy transfer.
Progenics' scientists used ProSys to demonstrate that chemokines, naturally occurring proteins that inhibit HIV infection, work by specifically blocking HIV fusion. In collaboration with investigators at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City, they also demonstrated that the chemokine receptor CC-CKR-5 is a fusion accessory or second receptor for clinical isolates of HIV.
Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., headquartered in Tarrytown, New York is a privately held biotechnology company specializing in the development of products for the management of cancer and vital diseases.
CONTACT: Joel D. Sendek, Senior Director, Corporate Development and Investor Relations of Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 914-789-2800; or Rich Tammero of Noonan/Russo Communications, Inc., 212-696-4455, ext. 222, e-mail: news@noonanrusso.com
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