Preliminary reports by several groups have demonstrated the potential for Fas ligand-based therapy to prevent transplant rejection, to treat autoimmune disease, to induce immunological tolerance and to treat cancer. The "Use of Fas Ligand to Suppress T-lymphocyte mediated Immune Responses" is protected by U.S. Patent No. 5,759,536, Donald Bellgrau and Richard C. Duke, Inventors. CERES Pharmaceuticals has licensed this Technology from the University of Colorado. The overall goal of this Phase I SBIR application is to develop and test in a well-established mouse model of arthritis, commercially-useful recombinant adenoviral gene therapy vectors encoding mutated versions of Fas ligand with enhanced therapeutic potential. These vectors and strategies for their production and application to treat human rheumatoid arthritis (U.S. Patents Pending) will be licensed to Pharmaceutical and/or Biotechnology companies for use in filing Investigational New Drug (IND) Applications with the FDA in anticipation of phase I clinical trails in humans.
