Technology Offerings

There are no basic technologies for nano-particles available, which are suitable for medical application. The present invention offers such a new technology, which is deal-ing with a bifid copolypeptide consisting of one hydrophilic polysarcosine and one hy-drophobic polycysteine part. The hydrophilic polysarcosine part prevents an unspecific binding on proteins, increases the solubility in the serum, and no immune reaction will be activated. Thus it is an ideal protection for encapsulated drugs.
The polycysteine part forms autonomous micelles in polar solvents, which are stabi-lized by cross linked disulphide bridges. The resulting micelles are stable in blood, in the cytosol, against glutathione and also survive endocytosis of antigen presenting cells or macrophages.
When the disulfide bonds were cleaved by metabolization, the copolymer loses its sta-bility and the active ingredient will be re-leased.

[Reference UMZ314]

Cancer is still the main cause of death despite
the development of many treatment
strategies, including extensive radiation and
chemotherapy. Clinical and research results
from animal test have shown that, besides
viruses, bacteria and parasites, the T-cell
system can also recognize malignant abnormal
cells and is able to destroy those.
Especially CD8+ T-cells (cytotoxic T lymphocytes,
CTLs) can cause responses of
tumor repulsion by the recognition of antigens
that are presented on the cell surface
by Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I
molecules (MHC, in humans HLA Class I).
This invention offers the application of HLAindependent
recognition of tumorassociated
antigens for diagnosis, therapy
and prevention of melanoma and other tumor
types. Two antigens are presented that
can be recognized by CTLs independently
of HLA and whose application in cancer
immune therapy will unlock new therapy
alternatives.
[Reference HMZ077]

T lymphocytes present HLA molecules on their surface. The allogeneic transplantations of blood cells could lead either to a required graft- versus- leukaemia/ tumor reaction (GvL/T) or could result in an undesired graft-versus-Host-Disease (GvHD). If there is a complete HLA-match, these effects could result from minor histocompatibility antigens. The present invention deals with an unknown mHAg. Studies have shown that T cells from one donor, which were coincubated with leukaemia cells (homozygous for HLA- molecules), could induce specific T cell responses. Accordingly these results refer to an immunogenic mHAg. A minor- mismatch could lead to a GvH- Disease or to positive GvL reactions. In the first case a tissue typing from donor and recipient could minimize the risk of a GvHD. In the second case the preferable GvL-/ GvT- effects could be increased through a transfer of antigen specific T cells or T cell receptors by inoculation.

Compared to conventional memory modules Magnetic memory cells have the important advantage that they do not need permanent current supply to save data, they only need current to change the information of the memory module. At present several MRAM technologies are beeing developed.
In the present memory the fact is used that on short time scales the course of the magnetization in a switching event is governed by precession. In the case of long writing pulses (e. g. >10ns) the switching properties are dominated by dissipative mechanisms, which is demonstrated in Fig. 1 by the clear boarder line between switched and non-switched regions. For shorter writing pulse durations the switching properties will be affected largely by the precessional properties of the magnetization. In particular the actual direction of the magnetization vector at pulse termination will determine the bit status stored in the memory cell. This is shown in Figs. 2 to 4, which show an increasingly more complex switching scenario with decreasing pulse duration, evidenced by the more complex boarder line between the regions of switching and non-switching.
On the basis of these ideas there have been realized a concept for an MRAM with very short switching times, which is optimized for maximum switching reliability and minimum power consumption

Adenosine is a modulator of many physiological and pathophysiological processes in the central nervous system (CNS). Blockade of the adenosine receptors A1ARs and A2AARs has shown beneficial neuroprotective effects in animal models and in clinical studies of Parkinsons’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There is still no satisfactory multitarget drug approach which inhibits MAO-A and the two adenosine receptors A1ARs and A2AARs. This invention provides newly designed tricyclic xanthine derivatives which allow overcoming this problem. A variety of 69 derivatives were prepared and evaluated in radioligand binding studies at adenosine receptors and for their ability to inhibit monoamine oxidases. Potent dual-target-directed A1/A2A adenosine receptor antagonists were identified. Several compounds even showed triple-target inhibition.

The co-stimulatory CD40-CD40L dyad is crucial in the development and progression of immune responses and chronic inflammatory diseases, such as atherosclerosis, obesity and multiple sclerosis. However, long-term antibody-mediated inhibition of CD40L or CD40 is not clinically feasible as it results in thromboembolic events and severe immune suppression. More downstream inhibition of the CD40L-CD40 pathway is therefore preferable, especially tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factors (TRAFs) recruited by CD40. Here we created a set of inhibitors that selectively block CD40-TRAF6 interactions. The rest of the CD40 cascade is left unaffected preventing unwanted immune-suppressive side effects. Therefore, our new inhibitors offer promising candidates as therapeutic agents for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as atherosclerosis, obesity and multiple sclerosis.