Rapid discovery and optimization of therapeutic antibodies against emerging infectious diseases

Rogers, J.; Schoepp, R.J.; Schröder, O.; Clements, T.L.; Holland, T.F.; Li, J.Q.; Li, J.; Lewis, L.M.; Dirmeier, R.P.; Frey, G.J.; Tan, X.; Wong, K.; Woodnutt, G.; Keller, M.; Reed, D.S.; Kimmel, B.E.; Tozer, E.C.

Traditionally, protection from pathogens can be achieved by either active or passive immunization. Active immunization in which a vaccine is administered to elicit a protective immune response is generally the desired therapeutic goal. Unfortunately, vaccine development can be slow and expensive, and in the case of biothreat agent vaccines, often fail to have the marketability to attract commercial research and development funding. Passive immunization where specific antibodies are administered is a viable alternative and provides immediate and protective immunity (Casadevall, 2002) . In sudden and unexpected terrorist attacks, the immediacy of the protection provided from passive, protective antibodies is especially important. Because the half-life of human serum immunoglobulin is $20 days, passive immunization could provide an effective countermeasure against such biological weapons (Casadevall, 2002) . The challenge then lies in being able to rapidly respond to these biological insults with the generation of specific antibodies.