Abstract: The invention relates to the therapeutic use of oligonucleotides or oligonucleotide analogs as immunostimulatory agents in immunotherapy applications. The invention provides methods for enhancing the immune response caused by immunostimulatory oligonucleotide compounds.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 27, 2003
Date of Patent:
September 7, 2010
Assignee:
Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc
Inventors:
Ekambar R. Kandimalla, Qiuyan Zhao, Dong Yu, Sudhir Agrawal
Abstract: The invention relates to the therapeutic use of oligonucleotides as immunostimulatory agents in immunotherapy applications. More particularly, the invention provides an immunostimulatory oligonucleotides for use in methods for generating an immune response or for treating a patient in need of immunostimulation. The immunostimulatory oligonucleotides of the invention preferably comprise novel purines. The immunostimulatory oligonucleotides according to the invention further comprise at least two oligonucleotides linked at their 3? ends, internucleoside linkages or functionalized nucleobase or sugar to a non-nucleotidic linker, at least one of the oligonucleotides being an immunostimulatory oligonucleotide and having an accessible 5? end.
Abstract: The invention provides methods for modulating the immune response caused by CpG-containing oligonucleotides. The methods according to the invention enable both decreasing the immunostimulatory effect for antisense applications, as well as increasing the immunostimulatory effect for immunotherapy applications.