Anti-CD52 therapy has been shown to be effective in the treatment of a number of B cell malignancies, hematopoietic disorders and autoimmune diseases (including rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis); however the current standard of treatment, the humanized monoclonal antibody alemtuzumab, is associated with the development of anti-drug antibodies in a high proportion of patients. In orde...

Alemtuzumab is a monoclonal antibody against the CD52 antigen present at high levels on the surface of lymphocytes. While treatment of multiple sclerosis patients with alemtuzumab results in marked depletion of lymphocytes from the circulation, it has not been associated with a high incidence of serious infections. In a human CD52 transgenic mouse, alemtuzumab treatment showed minimal impact on...

Successful attenuation of allograft rejection rate is a major clinical aspect in transplant. The CD52 binding monoclonal antibody CAMPATH1 or alemtuzumab, in this aspect, shows a promise as an effective immunomodifier. This humanized monoclonal antibody efficiently depletes CD52-bearing mature B- and T lymphocytes from circulation and thereby causes transient lymphopenia, a condition for genera...

CD52 is composed of a 12 amino acid peptide with N-linked glycans bound to the single potential glycosylation site at position 3, and a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchor attached at the C-terminus. Some glycoforms of this molecule expressed in the male reproductive tract are recognized by complement-dependent sperm-immobilizing antibodies in infertile patients making this antigen an important...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The therapeutic antibody alemtuzumab is directed against the CD52 molecule and is used for the treatment of B-cell lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). We investigated the mechanism of action of this antibody in vitro against different neoplastic B cells and compared it to the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab. DESIGN AND METHODS Complement-mediated cytotoxicity assays were perf...

BACKGROUND Currently, there is no drug known that is able to eradicate either HIV or HIV-infected host cells. The effectiveness of all available treatments is based on the prevention of viral replication. We investigated whether the monoclonal, CD52 receptor-targeting antibody, alemtuzumab, which is currently approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, is able to eliminate HIV-infected im...

CAMPATH-1 antibodies have a long and successful history in the treatment of leukaemia, autoimmune disease and transplant rejection. The first antibody to undergo "humanisation", CAMPATH-1H, permits treatment with limited patient anti-globulin response. It recognises the CD52 antigen which is a small glycosylphosphatidylinositol(GPI)-anchored protein expressed on lymphocytes and mediates cell de...