The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued the first U.S. patent for a novel ovarian cancer vaccine technology developed by Cleveland Clinic researchers Vincent K. Tuohy, PhD, Suparna Mazumder, PhD, and Justin M. Johnson. The technology is licensed worldwide by Anixa Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious diseases. A European patent covering this technology was issued earlier this year.
According to a news release: "The ovarian cancer vaccine targets a protein (the Extracellular Domain of the Anti-Mullerian Hormone Receptor 2, AMHR2-ED) that is normally expressed only in the ovaries of pre-menopausal women. After menopause, the target protein is no longer expressed in normal tissues and is only found again in ovarian cancer cells. Our vaccine targets the AMHR2-ED protein and trains the immune system to destroy ovarian cancer cells as they arise," said Tuohy, staff in the Department of Inflammation and Immunity at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and member of the Immune Oncology Program of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.